The Other Prophecy Child: A New Adventure
by Ascensions
Summary: The sequel to my first Percy Jackson Fanfiction, The Other Prophecy Child. A description of the story is posted inside. Here's to hoping everyone enjoys the sequel just as much as they did the original.
1. Chapter 1

**-Olympus-**

* * *

**Description: Three and a half years have passed since Hirius fought his father, Hades, and was given his curse. In that time, he and his friends have searched for a way to break the curse, but their search has yielded no results. Now, after a dream has plagued him for the past weeks, Hirius decides to head to Olympus, despite his exile, in order to ask the gods for help. However, it will not be as easy as simply asking them for help. And so, a new adventure begins.**

* * *

_******IMPORTANT NOTE (Please Read): I was recently browsing the internet and I found that someone had the nerve to copy two of my stories, post them on another website, and pass them off as their own work. Listen, you should never copy another persons work, it's just wrong and you will not get away with it. So always remember, respect the work that authors put into their stories and never try to copy them.**_

**Well, that note will be going on all of my stories in the future. Anyway, usually I have a lot to say when I post a new story, but this time I have nothing. So, as always, enjoy the new story.**

* * *

_Sarah and Justin,_

_You guys are probably going to hate me for this, but I'm not going to drag you into this one. Not yet at least. Not after…well, you guys know what I'm going to say. Look, there's just something that I have to do and it'll have to be on my own for once so that's how I'll be going it for now. Don't worry, I'll be back, just give it a few days, I'm not running off into mortal peril without you guys, I know you would never let me do that. Just stay where you are for now._

_I'm sorry Sarah, not just for this, but…well, you know._

_Hirius_

I read the note that I had prepared for my friends for what felt like the millionth time. After everything we had been through, all the times they had risked their lives for me, I felt awful about sneaking off in the middle of the night while they were sleeping, but it was the only way I would be able to get away from them. They always had a tendency to follow me wherever I went, even if they knew there was a good chance that all of us could get killed. This time I knew that I had to go it alone though.

I walked around the fire and set the note down next to Sarah, weighing it down with a small rock so I would be sure that it didn't blow away during the night. Sarah stirred for a moment before I got up to leave, but she remained asleep. I sat there and watched her for a moment. I was used to this, being up at night, wondering if what I was doing was right. The longer I stayed with Sarah and Justin, the more I thought that it wasn't fair to the two of them.

It had been over three years since I had faced Hades and he in turn gave me the curse of eternal youth. Justin and Sarah had both recently turned eighteen, but I hadn't aged a day since then. I felt like I had been keeping them from having lives of their own, like they had wasted those years chasing after something that was almost entirely hopeless.

I bent down and kissed Sarah lightly. "Bye Sarah," I said, "I'll be back soon, I promise."

Before I left her, I took a quick look at the bandages wrapped around her lower body. They would have to be changed in the morning. They were soaked in blood again. Recently, the three of us went on a little trip to Greece in hopes that we would find an answer to breaking my curse there. It may have been the worst mistake we had ever made. Being that close to the ancient lands isn't good when you're a demigod. Evils so ancient and deadly reside there that we couldn't even have imagined what it was like. Anyway, the short version of the trip was that Sarah was stabbed in the side by a dagger wielding monster that I never got a good look at. Normally, a bit of ambrosia and nectar would've patched her up within a few days at the least, but the dagger must have been coated with something because, even after going through what was left of our supply, the wound had yet to heal entirely. We were just lucky that Justin was a son of Apollo. Even if he wasn't the best healer, he still knew enough to keep Sarah alive and patch up her wound. It hadn't healed entirely yet, but she looked much better than she had when we left Greece.

Sarah stirred again and I heard Justin doing the same. It became clear that I shouldn't stick around much longer, so I stood and made my way out of our camp. I traversed through the woods a little ways until I was sure that I was far enough that I wouldn't wake Sarah and Justin. I concentrated on an image of a spot in New York City as I pulled the shadows in around me. Soon enough, I felt the familiar tugging feeling before I was shrouded in darkness and was shot forward like a bullet. Shadow travel wasn't the most enjoyable way to travel, or the easiest, but it was the fastest.

Before I knew it, the shadows melted away and I was standing in a familiar alleyway in the middle of New York City. I was pretty far from where I actually wanted to go, but the thing about shadow travel is that you really don't want to appear right in front of people, otherwise you might end up giving a mortal a heart attack, so I had to make sure that I would end up appearing in a spot where no one would be around to see me.

I sat down and let myself rest for a bit. Shadow travel doesn't look difficult, but it takes a lot of energy, it's easier when it's dark out, but that doesn't help as much as you might think, especially when you travel across an entire country. I probably sat there for a couple of hours, taking in the place where I was. It had been several years since everything had happened, but I still hated this place. It just served as a reminder of the fact that I wouldn't see my little sister ever again. Despite how much I hated it though, I still spent a long time sitting there, drinking in the memories. Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to rise.

I got up and made my way onto the streets of New York, blending in with a crowd of people passing by. A couple years ago, walking out on the streets in broad daylight would've been dangerous for me, especially in New York. There were two reasons for that, one was that when I was twelve I accidentally used my powers to push a boy out of the top floor window of the orphanage that I lived at when I was a kid, so I was technically considered a murderer. Well, I was anyway, but not anymore. I found out that an investigation was done and that no clear evidence was found to convict me of the crime, so they cleared me of all charges. Of course, there was also the fact that I was considered a terrorist for several years after I destroyed the Washington Monument during a fight with a Cyclopes, but, a few years ago, the video that started the whole thing was reanalyzed and people finally saw the Cyclopes in the video and everyone just sort of decided that I was innocent and that this new guy must have been the culprit. It's funny how mortals figure things out you know. Anyway, basically, I was no longer considered a criminal in any way, though I had become somewhat like a celebrity in the mortal world, to those that recognized me anyway.

I quickly made my way through the streets towards my destination, wanting to get there as fast as I could, and, soon enough, I was standing outside of the Empire State Building. Okay, so, even being in the state of New York wasn't safe for me let alone standing right on the gods' doorstep. The Olympians had all decided that I shouldn't exist, but they let me live so long as I didn't interfere in any of their business. Basically, as long as I pretended like I didn't exist, I was allowed to live.

I knew that I might as well be asking Zeus to incinerate me on the spot, but something kept pushing me to come here. The last few days, I kept having this weird dream, which I was used to, but this one wasn't quite like the others. In this dream, I was always standing at the entrance to the Empire State Building. I never did anything though, I would just stand there and stare up, but I was always staring at the sky above the building. I was always alone in the dream too. I didn't know if that meant anything, but I thought it best to play it safe. One thing I knew for sure, the dream was definitely telling me that I needed to go to Olympus. Oh, if you didn't know already, Olympus, the home of the gods, is above the Empire State Building.

I walked into the lobby. The place was packed with people, but I didn't really care much, and I pushed my way through the crowd to the security desk. The guard was reading a book and wasn't paying much attention to anyone, even when they were asking him questions. I tried to get his attention, but he didn't notice me at all. Finally, I just decided to speak up.

"Six hundredth floor, please," I said. That's the non-existent floor that Olympus is on.

The guard took a moment to answer. "That floor doesn't exist," he said.

"I need to speak to Zeus," I said, "You know, king of Olympus."

The guard was silent again for a long time, and I thought that I had just made the mistake of talking about our world to a mortal. I was about to make a run for it before he decided to call the police, but then he spoke up again."

"Lord Zeus only takes an audience if you make an appointment," he said, "He's busy, especially these days."

"Oh, I think he can make an exception in this case," I told him.

"Really," the guard questioned, "And just what makes you so special?"

"I'm sure even you've heard of me," I said, "My name is Hirius."

"Hirius," the guard asked, finally putting his book down and looking at me. He took a moment to look me up and down, and then he let out a howl of laughter. "You've got guts showing up here," the guard said, "Zeus said he'd kill you if you got within ten feet of this building." He went back to reading his book and was silent again for a while. "In case you were wondering," he started again, "That means you can't go up."

I was already starting to get fed up with this guy. "Look, I need to see Zeus. Now!" The guard didn't answer me. "Alright, if you know who I am, then you know what I've done," I said, "I think it would be in your best interest to help me here."

The guard looked at me again. "Are you threatening me, kid," he asked.

I stared him in the eye. "What if I am," I asked.

The guard held my stare for a long time. Then he let out another laugh. "You know what," the guard said, "I'll let you go just so I can watch Zeus incinerate you." He shuffled through his desk for a moment. He pulled out a key card and handed it to me. "Here," he said, "Insert this into the security slot. Oh, and make sure no one else is on the elevator."

I nodded and took the card from him. I waited for a long time, watching the elevators, until I managed to get on one by myself. Once the doors were closed, I slipped the card into the security slot. It disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600.

I pressed the new button, felt the elevator lurch as it began to move upward, and then I waited, for a long time. I stood there, staring at the doors, hoping they would open soon, especially since the music playing was driving me nuts. Finally, the elevator stopped, I heard a _ding_, the doors slid open, and I thought that I had just died.

I was standing on a narrow stone walkway, high in the air, above the clouds even, higher than an airplane even. Below was the city of Manhattan, barely visible through the clouds and looking like a mere speck from that height. In front of me, white marble steps wound up through the clouds, into the sky, leading directly to the decapitated peak of a mountain, the summit of which was covered in snow.

The mountain peak rose up out of the clouds. The peak was covered with multileveled palaces, forming what looked like a city of mansions. Roads wound around the mountain in a fashion that seemed to make no sense, all of them going to the peak where the largest of the palaces gleamed against the snow. Gardens bloomed in every direction, full of olive trees and rosebushes. There was an open-air market full of tents, an amphitheater on one side of the mountain and a coliseum built on the other side. It looked like an ancient Greek city, like the ones we had seen during our trip to Greece, but this one was perfectly in tact, not in ruins like the others.

The place really was impressive, and I would've taken the time to admire it, but I wasn't there to take in the view. I climbed the steps toward the city and pushed my way through the place, through crowds of wood nymphs and minor gods, passed hawkers in the market trying to sell ambrosia, shields, swords, and other wares that I had little or no use for. I didn't care about any of it really. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. The longer I was there, the more risk I was in.

I climbed the main road to the palace on the peak, which was a reverse replica of Hades' palace, only it was white instead of black. I wasn't surprised really. I knew that Hades still held, and would always hold, a grudge against his brothers for stealing what he thought was his birthright. It was reflected in the way he built his palace as a copy of Olympus.

I climbed the steps into the courtyard and then to the throne room. The place was huge. It looked like it was built for giants rather than humans, which I suppose it was in a way. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was decorated with moving constellations. Twelve thrones were arranged in an inverted U shape, each of them built for beings ten times the size of a human. Most of them were empty, but some of the gods were there, almost like they were waiting for me. I had never seen them before, but I knew each of them despite that. Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hera, and, of course, Zeus, were all sitting in their thrones, watching me as I entered the room.

I remembered the last time I had spoken with Zeus. He was the only god that I was truly afraid of. He was the only one that radiated so much power that it actually paralyzed me. But I knew that I couldn't let that fear show. I had to keep my composure. I approached Zeus. He was dressed like he was when we met last, in a pin-stripped suit. He was sitting on a throne of solid platinum. He glared down at me with his rainy gray eyes.

"I'm surprised to see you here," Zeus said, "I thought that it was clear that you are not welcome."

"Very clear," I said, "But I thought you could use some company." I looked around the throne room at the gods that were there. "This place looks pretty empty."

"That is of no concern to you," Zeus said.

I eyed him suspiciously. "Really," I inquired, "Why is that?"

"Do not speak to Lord Zeus in that tone," Hera said.

I looked over at her. "What," I said, "I'm just curious is all."

I turned back to Zeus who was now glaring at me with a more intense anger than before. I was making a huge risk by pushing Zeus like this, but I had to do it. It was all part of my plan. Of course, I already knew why the throne room was empty, but I needed Zeus to tell me what was going on so I could use it as a bargaining chip against him.

Zeus sighed after a moment. "If you must know," he said, "We are faced with a growing threat as of late. The others are out on my orders, well, most of them are." His eyes darted toward the throne to his left, which would've been Poseidon's, but he didn't say anymore.

"A growing threat," I questioned with fake ignorance, "What could be a threat to the gods?"

"I think you know," Zeus said.

I smiled without meaning to. "Well, I always thought that you would consider Kronos a minor nuisance, especially when he's walking around in a demigod's body," I said, "But I guess that Typhoeus will be much harder to deal with, won't he?"

Zeus continued to glare at me, his anger growing. I should've known that he was on to me, and I did, but it didn't change anything. I had been having dreams the last few months. To make things short, I knew that Kronos' power had been growing ever since I had stopped him the first time. I also knew that he had procured a new demigod host in Luke Castellan, a demigod I had made friends with at Camp Half-Blood and who later betrayed his friends to join the titan lord. I also recently learned that Typhoeus had begun to stir and may soon escape his prison, which was under Mt. St. Helens. If he managed to, then, between Kronos and Typhoeus, Olympus may have been facing its final days.

Now, I would've involved myself in this sooner, but there were two reasons that I hadn't. The first was that, as I mentioned, I was forbidden from interfering in anything related to the gods or Olympus, this included attempting to prevent the destruction of one or both. The second was that Olympus had already found someone new to fight Kronos in Percy Jackson, Poseidon's son, who was also the latest candidate for the oh-so-glamorous position of the Prophecy Child. Plus there was the fact that I was halfway around the world while most of this was happening.

"Can I assume that you came here to discuss this," Zeus asked, "Or did you have something else to waste my time?"

"I guess I should get right to the point shouldn't I?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure why I needed to go to Olympus, but I had an idea. The dreams had gone on for several months, and it took me a long time to figure out what I needed to do, but I couldn't set it aside forever. Now the only problem was convincing the gods to go along with it.

"I was hoping that everyone would be here, but I guess this will work."

I looked at each of the gods in turn. I wondered if any of them would be on my side. I imagined that Apollo and Aphrodite would help, since they had already done so in the past. Ares was definitely a no go, unless Aphrodite could convince him, which was a long shot. Artemis was a wild card since I had no idea what her opinion on me was, Hera was the same, but my guess was that she would be against me. Zeus was the key of course. If I could convince him, then the others would have to follow suit.

"Alright Zeus," I said, "Here's how it is, I need help, and so does Olympus."

"And what makes you think that we need help?"

"Face it Zeus," I said, "Even the gods can't fight two enemies this powerful on their own and the demigods at Camp Half-Blood have already suffered heavy losses, you need all the help you can get to defend Olympus."

"You really think that you are that important to us," Hera asked, "We would sooner have you killed than we would help you."

"Hold on Hera," Apollo said, "I believe that we should hear him out at least."

"Of course you do," Hera retorted, "You and Aphrodite defend him to no end. Do you really think that he is worthy of it?"

"We do," Aphrodite cut in, "And remember, we were right about him the first time."

Hera fixed Aphrodite with a hard glare, but she had nothing more to say to her. Instead she turned to her husband. "Zeus," she inquired.

Zeus had not taken his eyes off of me, even during the commotion. "I suppose there is no harm in listening to him," Zeus said. I waited for Hera to object, but she never did.

"It's as simple as this," I began, "I still have this curse that Hades placed on me, and, as far as I know, there's only one way I'll be able to get rid of it and that's only if the gods take it away from me."

"So, you're asking us to break the curse that Hades placed on you," Zeus asked, "And I'm guessing that you would be willing to help us fight Kronos if we do."

I nodded. "That," I said, "Or you can continue to consider me an enemy, and I can start acting like one if you want."

"Should I consider that a threat," Zeus asked. I didn't answer him. "You intend to join Kronos if we do not help you?" Again I didn't answer.

I had no intention at all of joining Kronos. There was no way that I would help him, no matter what he offered, and he could be very convincing when he wanted to be. He had already convinced a number of demigods to join his cause with the promise that he would end the gods' reign and make a better world for them. I couldn't blame the ones that joined him really. The gods weren't the greatest of parents, or rulers for that matter. I knew both of these things all too well. It might seem like they only thought of their children as weapons, but they weren't as bad as Kronos made them sound, most of them weren't anyway. Besides, all of the titan lord's promises were empty. He was just going kill all of the demigods that helped him in the end. He couldn't have anyone around that could challenge him after all.

I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, letting Zeus think that I would join Kronos, but it was the best bet that I had. The gods were already afraid of me to an extent. They weren't entirely sure what I was capable of, and that by itself was dangerous. At the very least, they didn't want me to fight against them.

"Preposterous," Hera let out, "We can't trust this boy, and besides, we have already decided on his fate, even listening to him is going against everything we have put forth."

"I believe that Hirius has already proven that he is on our side," Aphrodite said, "Have you already forgotten how he defeated Kronos once?"

"Yes, and he nearly sided with the titan lord and aided him in destroying Olympus," Hera responded, "And he also gave Kronos a second chance to gain back his power when he could have easily stopped it and prevented all of this from happening in the first place."

"You know as well as any of us that isn't true," Apollo spoke up, "There was nothing that Hirius could do about Kronos then."

Hera fixed Apollo with and angry look, but didn't appear to have any response for him. "Maybe so," Hera said after a moment, "But that does not change the fact that he is meant to be in exile. He is forbidden from interfering in any of our affairs."

"True that may be," Aphrodite said, "But I think we can all agree that our circumstances have changed since then."

"Nonsense," Hera said, "We don't need any help from him."

"I have to agree with Hera," Ares said, "This kid is dangerous, and there's no reason for us to turn back on our judgment. In fact, why don't you just let me take care of him Zeus?"

I turned my gaze away from Zeus for the first time and fixed it on Ares. He cracked his knuckles at me like he was trying to challenge me. I would've gladly taken the chance to knock the war god's ego down a couple of pegs, but I had more important things to do, so I just ignored him instead and focused on Zeus.

The lord of Olympus had a distant look on his face as he stroked his beard, a clear sign that he was deep in thought. He stared at me for a while, considering me, wondering what my intentions were. Here was another reason that Zeus scared me. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. The other gods, even Hades, could be read if I looked for the right signs. But not Zeus. There was no way for me to tell what he was going to do.

After a long time, Zeus looked over at Artemis. "And what do you say on this matter," he asked, "You have been uncharacteristically quiet."

Artemis had avoided looking at me until that point, but she couldn't do so any longer. I turned to look at her as well, having nearly forgotten that she was there, but it was hard to look directly at her. By far, Artemis was one of the most beautiful goddesses I had ever seen, she even gave Aphrodite a run for her money, I almost felt like I shouldn't be allowed to look at her. It was even harder to do so when she was staring right back at me.

As we stood there staring at each other, I couldn't help but wonder what she would do. I didn't know what her opinion on my existence was, whether she thought I should be dead or not, so I had no idea what she would say. But I saw something strange in her eyes. I had to be seeing things, the gods were too proud for something like this, but it actually looked like there was a sign of sympathy in the way Artemis was looking at me. Did she actually feel sorry for me?

"Well," Artemis said after a long time, "I think that Hirius does deserve a chance. I think that he has proven that we can trust him."

"No," Hera said, "There is no way that we can trust him, and we cannot go against our own judgment."

"Yeah," Ares said, "Plus I wouldn't get the chance to crush his skull if we decide to help him. Come on, just let me…"

"Enough," Zeus shouted at the other gods, "I have decided." He turned his attention back to me. "Hirius, I am still not sure that we can trust you," he said, "However, you have proven yourself in the past and I think that you are deserving of our help." Hera and Ares immediately broke into shouts and complaints, but they were quickly silenced by Zeus once again.

"So you'll take the curse off of me then," I asked.

"It will not be as simple as that," Zeus said, "No, you will have to prove yourself, that you are worthy of the gods' favor."

"And if I do, then you'll break the curse?"

"I swear it on the River Styx."

"Good," I said, "Now, how do you propose I gain your favor?"

Zeus was silent again as his expression became distant once again. He exchanged looks with the other gods at regular intervals, but no words were ever exchanged between them. "Yes, that would be appropriate," Zeus spoke up after a time, "I think that we shall proceed then."

"So what am I doing?"

"A task fit for only the bravest of warriors, or shall I say tasks," Zeus said, "If you wish to prove that you are worthy of our favor, then you must complete the twelve labors."

"The twelve labors," I asked, "That doesn't sound like much of a challenge."

"Perhaps, but only one man completed these labors," Zeus said, "And it took him several years. You will complete them before the end of the month of August."

"August," I asked, "But that only gives me a little over six months."

"This is my decision," Zeus retorted, "This is what you must do."

My eyes fell to the floor and I thought over it a few times. The twelve labors were only completed by Heracles, a man considered to be the greatest demigod that ever lived, and even he took several years to complete them. Individually, no single labor would be too difficult, not if I went about them the right way, but, together, doing them one after the other, it was practically a death wish. How in the world was I supposed to complete them in just over six months? This didn't seem at all possible. Maybe that was the point though. Maybe Zeus didn't want me to accomplish this.

"Don't I at least get some help," I asked, "I mean, even Heracles had a bit of help."

"True, though he was not meant to," Zeus said, "But no, you are to accomplish each of the labors on your own, not even your friends are allowed to aid you."

I stood and stared at the god for several minutes. "So that's in then," I asked, "That's your final word?"

"It is."

That was it then. Zeus was clearly setting me up for failure. There was no way that anyone, not me, not even Heracles, could accomplish such a task in such a short time on their own. Zeus didn't want to help me; he just wanted me out of his hair. This was nothing more than a distraction. He wanted to make sure that I wouldn't interfere in the war with Kronos, whether I was on his side or not. Maybe my plan had backfired.

"Very well," I said.

I turned around and walked for the exit of the throne room. None of the gods spoke out against Zeus' word, they must have been too afraid to do so. This was completely unfair. I couldn't believe that Zeus would do something like this. That he would just send me off on some hopeless journey just so I would stay out of his way.

I would just have to prove him wrong then. I could turn his whole plan against him. If I could just pull it off somehow, if I could complete the labors in time then he would have to hold up his end of the bargain, even a god couldn't break an oath sworn on the Styx. I could do this. I had done crazier things in the past. It was all just a matter of careful planning. All hope wasn't lost for me yet.

I was just starting to figure out where I would start, when I heard someone chasing after me.

"Hirius," I heard them call.

I turned around and saw Artemis rushing toward me from the throne room, now shrunk to her normal human size. "Artemis," I said like it was a question, "What…"

"You realize what Zeus has just done don't you," she asked as she approached me, "Surely you are not so dense?"

"Well…" I trailed off for a moment.

Talking to Artemis posed a bit of a problem for me. It wasn't because of her beauty. That I could deal with. Actually, it was because of the fact that she reminded me too much of Emily. It was already bad enough that she looked a lot like her, especially since she dressed in the same way that her hunters did, the same way that Emily was dressed the last time I had seen her. She was also, more or less, the reason that Emily and I had been separated all those years ago. Justin asked me once if I blamed her for what happened to Emily. I didn't think, or even consider, that Artemis could be at fault for what happened, but I didn't blame her for it. After all, it wasn't like she separated us on purpose, or that she did it just to spite me or something.

"I did manage to put it together," I said, "I realize that he's setting me up to fail."

"Then why did you accept," Artemis asked, "You know that you cannot possibly accomplish such a task."

I shrugged. "You really think he would change his mind if I complained about it," I asked, "Besides, this might be my only chance to break this curse." Artemis looked like she was confused by my answer. "Hey," I went on, "Don't count me out yet. I'll find a way to do this, even if I have to do it alone."

Artemis turned away from me. "It's impossible; you realize that," she said, "You cannot accomplish this without help."

"So, what are you suggesting," I asked, "Do you want to help me?"

Artemis shook her head as she turned to face me once again. "I cannot help you, Zeus would not allow it," she said, "But I do know someone that will be able to help you."

"But Zeus said I couldn't have any help."

"I should be able to convince him to make an exception."

"Couldn't you just convince him to let my friends help me then?"

"This person is…special," Artemis said. I eyed her suspiciously. "Please just trust me," she said, "I do want to help you, even if I can't do so directly."

I continued to stare at the goddess, wondering if it were wise for me to trust her. It was true that she had spoken up to support me earlier, but that didn't mean much of anything. The gods weren't generally known for helping demigods, not unless they had a reason to do so. So what was Artemis' reason for helping me? What would she gain if I succeeded? Maybe she thought that I would be helpful if I joined in the fight against Kronos. That might've been it, but was that worth risking Zeus' wrath.

"Alright," I said not knowing if I was making the right choice, "I'll trust you."

Artemis nodded. "Thank you Hirius," she said, "You'll find someone who will join you once you leave Olympus."

"How will I know who it is?"

"Don't worry," Artemis said, "You will recognize her." I wasn't so sure, New York was a big place with a lot of people after all, but I would just have to trust Artemis. I turned around to leave, but Artemis stopped me one more time. "Hirius," she said. I turned around to face her again. "Your sister," she went on, "I got to know her well before she died. She was a good person. She didn't deserve what happened to her. I'm sorry."

Before I could respond, Artemis began to glow and I knew that I had to look away unless I wanted to be incinerated. Artemis disappeared in a flash of light, leaving me to stand there wondering what she had just said to me. I turned once more and left the palace.

As I walked through Olympus, I couldn't help but replay my conversation with Artemis over and over in my head. What she had said to me last, about my sister, it had really stuck with me. Emily had left to join the hunters of Artemis, but I never considered how close she might have been with the goddess. Aside from that, why had Artemis even brought it up at all? Did she feel somehow responsible for Emily's death? Was that why she wanted to help me?

I also had to wonder who it was that Artemis had sent to help me. I remembered the one time I had actually met the hunters of Artemis. There was this one girl, she wasn't the nicest, but she was an excellent warrior. I had only been around her for a short time, but I could tell that she was the one in charge, when Artemis wasn't around anyway. I never got to learn her name, but that must've been who Artemis was talking about, though I wasn't sure if I would be able to recognize her when I saw her. It was the only thing that made sense though.

I found my way back to the elevator and rode it back down to the lobby of the Empire State Building. The security guard did not look happy to see me, and was clearly disappointed that Zeus had decided not to incinerate me, but he mostly ignored me as I passed him. I pushed through the crowd in the lobby and left the building.

I looked up and down the street, looking for someone that I would recognize, but not being sure who I was actually looking for. And then I saw her. Across the street, looking up and down it like she was waiting for someone, was a girl. She had short, spiky, black hair and was wearing the same clothes that Artemis had been wearing.

This girl couldn't possibly be there though. True I had spoken to her once, and I had seen her on several other occasions, but she couldn't be there now. She was dead, technically I guess. Okay, so it wouldn't be that weird for me to see someone who should be dead, but usually I was the only one that could see them. But people passing her on the street were deliberately avoiding her, some of them even giving her strange looks, most likely due to the clothes she was wearing. But they shouldn't have been able to see her, so why could they? Well, there was only one way to figure out what was going on.

"Thalia," I said as I approached her, "Thalia Grace?" I didn't think that she would acknowledge me, thinking that she must be someone else, but she turned to me when I called her name.

Thalia gave me a confused look. "How do you know my name?"

"You don't remember me?"

Thalia considered me for a moment. "I don't think we've ever met."

Now this really didn't make sense. I had only met Thalia once, close to eight years ago now, and that encounter is really hard to describe. You see, Thalia technically didn't exist when I met her. Through a series of complicated circumstances that I won't get into now, Thalia had been turned into a tree by her fater, Zeus, two years before we met. Somehow, though, she managed to contact me while she was in that form. I still never learned how, or why, she had contacted me, but I was glad that she did.

"You have to remember," I said, "It was right here in New York."

Thalia stared at me silently again for a time before shaking her head. "Sorry," she said "I really don't remember."

My initial excitement at seeing Thalia was now gone. I had always wanted the chance to thank Thalia in person for what she had done for me. It seemed like such a small thing back then, but Thalia saved my life. She had kept me from giving up on myself. If it wasn't for her, I never would've met my friends. In fact, if it weren't for her, I would probably be dead. There was no point in thanking her now if she didn't even remember it though. It must've been such a small thing to her.

"Oh," I said disappointed, "Well, my name is Hirius. Artemis told me that someone would help me and…"

"What," Thalia shouted, stopping me in mid sentence, "This is what Artemis called me here for!? There's a war going on and she wants me to baby-sit!?"

"Baby-sit," I asked getting annoyed, "I think you're being a little…"

"I can't believe she would do this to me," Thalia went on, cutting me off again, "This is such a waste of my talents!? And a child of Hades to!? What does she think I am!? What does she even want me to help you with!?"

I was so sure that Thalia was just ranting to herself that I didn't answer her right away. "The gods set me to the task of completing the twelve labors before the end of September."

"Oh that's just great," she ranted on, "It couldn't be something easy could it!? No, instead of preparing to take on Kronos' forces, I have to go chasing a bunch of monsters around the country!? This is just great!" With that, she turned and began to storm off without another word. She didn't get very far before she turned to me, having realized that I wasn't following her. "Well," she shouted, "Are you coming or not!?"

"Can I at least ask where we're going," I said.

"The first labor was to kill the Nemean Lion," she said, "We have to find it before we can kill it, so hurry up." She turned and stormed off again.

I followed behind her quickly, not wanting her to explode at me again. I could already tell that this was not going to be a fun trip.

"Artemis," I whispered under my breath as I followed Thalia, "What in the world have you gotten me into?"


	2. Chapter 2

**-The First Labor-**

* * *

**Note: Well, that took a long time. Yeah, sorry about that everyone, I've just been struck with a huge case of writer's block recently, but i'm pretty sure it's passed by now. Well, let's hope that it is anyway. That being said, I'm not really sure about this chapter, it sounds strange when i read it, but, i don't know, maybe it's just me. Anyway, as always, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

I hoped that Thalia's mood would improve after some time, but my hopes were dashed after a few weeks went by and she continued to look at me with the same scowl that she had been wearing ever since we met. I tried to talk to her a few times, tried to get her to open up, maybe to tell me what the hell her problem was, but she would either ignore me or would speak up for a few minutes and then ignore me. Either way, I never did get much out of her other than a few rude remarks.

She was putting me into a bad mood as well. I mean, I had always imagined Thalia would be a kind and caring person if I ever got the chance to meet her. That was certainly how she was when I had spoken to her several years ago, but this was nothing like what I expected from her. I doubt that my friends would believe me if I told them that this was the girl that saved me from giving up on myself after Emily disappeared.

There was another reason I was in a bad mood though. Thalia was in such a hurry to get moving that I never got the chance to tell Sarah and Justin what was happening. Of course, I would've loved to have had them along for the ride, but Zeus was pretty clear when he told me that I wasn't allowed any help on this quest. I still had to wonder how Artemis managed to convince him to let Thalia tag along with me. I guess the fact that she was his daughter had something to do with it. Well, I would've at least felt better if I could've let my friends know that I was still alive.

Anyway, after Thalia stormed off, I tried to catch up with her and ask what she was planning on doing, but she didn't say a word to me. Instead, I followed her from the city, catching a bus and then continuing on foot. After some time, we ended up in the Appalachian mountain range. I had no idea what Thalia was thinking, or what her plan was, but I decided not to question it and just trust her instincts. The hunters were, after all, experts when it came to tracking and killing monsters. Besides, she obviously wanted to get this whole mess over with as fast as possible.

We spent several weeks searching the mountains, but we found little to nothing. I tried to help Thalia, I could usually sense the presence of nearby monsters, which was due to my connection with the Underworld, but it was never a very reliable power. It worked better if I had been around the monster, or one like it, before. Of course, I had never fought the Nemean Lion before, and the closest monster to it that I had fought was the Manticore, but I didn't think that he was a close enough relative. In any case, we didn't find anything.

We were in Virginia by the time Thalia started to get frustrated. Well, she always looked like she was frustrated, but she looked a lot more so than usual by that time. I was the one that suggested we take a break and maybe think about searching somewhere else. Thalia wouldn't hear any of it though. I managed to calm her down after a long time and convinced her to go along with my plan. The way things were going for us, it would be several years before we even completed the first labor alone. Maybe things would get better once we were on the road.

Thalia's mood did not improve in the slightest over the next few days, but I did finally manage to get her to talk to me. Well, maybe it was the other way around actually. We traveled a decent way on foot, caught a bus at one point, and then got on a train in Illinois. I still had no idea where Thalia was trying to take me, but I still told myself that I just had to trust her. There wasn't much else that I could do. Anyway, we were on the train, Thalia was staring out the window, watching the countryside speed by. I was sitting across from her, staring up at the ceiling and trying to get some sleep, something that I always had trouble doing.

"So what is this all about," Thalia spoke up suddenly. I looked over at her, thinking that I must've been hearing things. She tore her gaze away from the window and looked at me. "Are you deaf," she asked, "What is all of this about?"

I continued to stare at her, a blank look on my face. I was still thinking that I must have been imagining this, even if I had just watched her do it. That was the first time that Thalia had spoken to me since we met, without yelling at me of course. I remained silent for a moment, which was obviously a mistake. Thalia looked like she was ready to start yelling at me again, so I spoke up.

"What do you mean," I asked.

"You know what I mean," she said, "Why are we trying to kill the Nemean Lion."

"Artemis didn't tell you," I asked.

Thalia sighed. "She didn't actually show up and ask me to do this," she said, "She sent her sacred animal to fetch me."

"Oh," I said, "Well, I'm sorry to say, but I'm really not very comfortable talking about it." Thalia continued to scowl at me, looking even angrier than usual if that were possible. "But, ummm," I said hoping to calm her down, "Let's just say that I need a favor from the gods and this is kind of the only way that I can get them on my side."

Thalia stared at me for a long time without saying a word. "So that's why I'm here," she said, "So you can get some stupid request from the gods."

She turned and continued to stare out of the window. This girl was beginning to get on my last nerve. I could understand where she might be coming from. Kronos could decide to attack Olympus, or Camp Half-Blood, or whatever he was planning on doing, at any moment, and, instead of helping to prepare for it, she had been taken away in order to help someone she had never met with something that she had nothing to do with. Honestly, I probably wouldn't be in the best mood if I was in her shoes, but that didn't mean that she should be angry with me. Maybe she would feel differently if she knew my position.

"Alright," I said, "You really want to know?" Thalia looked at me again. "Fine," I went on, "I won't bore you with every little detail, but the short version is that I pissed my dad off and he decided to curse me with eternal youth. Happy now?"

Thalia stared at me silently for a moment before letting out a laugh. "You act like it's a bad thing," she said.

"It might not sound like it," I said, "But it is. How would you feel knowing that everyone you knew and loved would die while you just kept living doomed to walk the earth for eternity?" The two of us stared at each other. "Doesn't sound so nice now," I said, "You can't imagine what that's like."

I didn't realize what I had said until it was too late. The way that Thalia was staring at me reminded me of it. The hunters were the same as me. They were immortal as well, eternally young. They wouldn't age and die like everyone else. But that was different from my fate. At least they had friends to join them in eternal life. At least they had each other. Me, on the other hand, I didn't have anyone.

"You think you're alone," Thalia said, "I have friends that can't live forever too you know."

"But I didn't choose this path," I said, "It was forced on me."

"But I did choose to help you with the labors," Thalia responded, "Just remember, I don't have to do this."

"Then why are you still here?"

Thalia glared at me, her scowl deepening. "Never mind it," she said. With that, she went back to staring out of the window and I turned my head to the ceiling once again, trying to get some sleep.

We traveled for a long time in silence. I was beginning to wonder where we were going, but I didn't want to say anything after our last conversation. Instead, I kept my gaze fixed on the ceiling, wondering how much longer I would have to deal with this. Eventually, though, the silence started to get to me.

"So where are we going anyway," I asked looking over at Thalia.

She didn't answer right away. "Colorado," she said after a moment and without looking at me, "We'll search the Rocky Mountains next."

"Why all the mountains," I asked, "Do you really think we'll find it there?"

"I'm not sure," she answered, "But I don't really know what else to try."

"But why mountains," I asked.

Thalia looked at me. "Do you know anything," she asked. I gave her a blank stare. She sighed. "In the myth," she explained, "The Nemean Lion lived in a cave in the mountains, so that would be the best place to start looking for it."

"And what if we don't find it," I asked.

"Well then…we'll just…" Thalia trailed off, apparently at a loss for words. She clearly hadn't thought of what to do if we didn't find the Nemean Lion in the mountains. "Look, we'll find it okay," she said.

"And what if we don't?"

"Then I'll…" She trailed off again as she thought of what to do. "Then I'll just ask Artemis for help," she decided.

"I'm not so sure that'll work," I said.

"What makes you say that?"

I didn't answer her right away. Honestly, that might've been a perfectly reasonable answer to the problem. Artemis was already willing to help me once, so why wouldn't she do so again? Well, it wasn't really a question of whether Artemis was willing to help me or not, it was a question of whether she would be able to. Zeus was pretty clear on the fact that I wasn't allowed any help on this journey, despite having broken that rule once already. Of course, he never said anything about asking one of the other Olympians for a nudge in the right direction, but I was sure that he wouldn't look too fondly on the idea.

I still didn't answer Thalia, even though I knew what I was going to tell her. The thing was, I didn't just want to tell her something like, 'oh, you know, because your dad hates me,' or, 'because your dad wants us to fail,' or something like that. I don't know, maybe I just didn't feel like bringing it up, or maybe I just didn't want to get into a fight about what a terrible god Zeus was with his daughter.

"Never mind it," I said after a long time.

Thalia turned her gaze back to the window, and I did the same. The rest of our trip was made in silence. I never did get any sleep.

We got off of the train in Denver, Colorado. The air up there was cold, much more so than it was back in New York. Of course, being the middle of winter, pretty much anywhere would've felt like that, but the east coast had been in the middle of an abnormally warm week and Colorado wasn't exactly the warmest of places since it was up in the mountains. The best part about it was that neither of us had prepared for the cold.

Thalia wanted to head straight for the mountains and start searching, but I managed to convince her to wait another day, even though it took a long time to do so. The sun was already beginning to set, and, despite what she said, Thalia was just as tired as I was. Besides that, we also needed to buy the right clothing to deal with the cold. I could only imagine what it would be like once we were in the mountains.

We didn't have much money, mortal money that is, but, between the two of us, we managed to get a cheap room, which only had one bed, at a small hotel on the edge of the city for one night. If I had been with Sarah and Justin, we probably would've stayed in a much fancier place, which would've been paid for with the credit card that belonged to Sarah's father. Staying in a cheap place like this didn't bother me much though. I had slept in so many different places over the years that it didn't matter to me anymore. Whether I was camping out in the woods or staying in a fancy hotel, it all felt the same to me. Thalia forced me to sleep on the floor, which didn't bother me much since I was going to offer her the bed anyway and since I was so used to sleeping on the ground outside.

Thalia fell asleep within minutes, despite all of her constant arguing that she wasn't tired. I lay awake for a long time though. I was starting to worry about Sarah and Justin. It had been several weeks now since I had left them to go talk to the gods on Mount Olympus. I was only supposed to be away for a day, but that had nearly turned into a month already, and who knew how much longer it would be before I saw them again. I could've tried to talk to them through Iris, the rainbow goddess, but I didn't have any golden drachmas and I really didn't want to ask Thalia if I could borrow one, not with the way she had been acting so far. Besides, I didn't think that she would be too happy about me taking up time to contact my friends. I had thought about trying to go back to where I had left them, but that was back in southern California and I had no idea if they were even still there. Knowing them, they had probably already started looking for me. Well, I would just have to hope that they were okay. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

Okay, I hate my dreams, like, really hate my dreams. Usually, dreaming is supposed to be a nice, peaceful thing, but it's the exact opposite of that when you're a demigod. Some of the worst experiences of my life have happened while I was asleep, and this time was no exception. I really hate my dreams.

I was standing on what looked like the deck of a cruise ship. It looked like an average luxury cruise ship, except for the fact that it looked like it hadn't been used in over three years. Even so, it could've passed for normal. I actually would've thought that I was having a normal dream for once if it wasn't for the monsters surrounding me. There were all kinds of them, hellhounds, Cyclopes, Dracanae, and others I had never seen before.

The monsters moved about the deck of the ship, none of them paying any attention to me. I was used to that, though. Normally, no one could see me when I was dreaming, but, then again, there were times when I was contacted by either a god or some other powerful being through my dreams. So, was someone trying to contact me now? And who would want to talk to me for that matter?

"My how the little son of Hades has grown," someone said behind me, "Or should I say, look at how much he should have grown." I turned around quickly, attempting to summon my sword as I did so, but failing to. I should be used to losing my powers in my dreams.

In front of me was a boy with blond hair who couldn't have been more than a few years older than I was. He looked like an average college-age guy, wearing his white T-shirt and blue jeans, but I had met him once before when I was at Camp Half-Blood. His name was Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, and considered one of the best swordsmen at camp. But, then again, this wasn't exactly Luke that I was looking at. He looked exactly how I remembered him, a little bit older now, but it was obvious by looking at his eyes that he wasn't the same person. His eyes were gold. The one talking to me was Kronos, the titan lord.

"Oh boy," I said to him, "My favorite titan. To what do I owe this displeasure?"

If I were actually face-to-face with Kronos, I might have been a little less confident than I was now. I had fought him, and defeated him, once before, but he was still weak back then. Even in my dream, I could sense how much more powerful he was now than when I had faced him. I was beginning to regret the fact that I hadn't done more to stop him back then, but there was little that I could do. At least there was nothing that he could do to me in my dreams.

"As irritating as I remember," Kronos said.

"Is there a reason that I'm here," I asked, "Or did you just plan on wasting my time? I have things to do you know."

Kronos smiled at me. "So I've heard," he said, "You've been very difficult to track down."

"Is there a point to all of this," I asked, "Or can I wake up now?"

Kronos' smile faded and was replaced by a sneer. "You've gotten cocky over the years," he said.

"More like impatient," I said, "And I'm kind of in a hurry right now."

"Very well," Kronos said, "I'll be quick. I have one final offer for you."

"I'm not interested," I said.

I already knew that, whatever offer Kronos might have for me, there was no way that I would agree to it. Sure, it would sound too good to be true at first, but there would be something that he wouldn't tell me. Hades and Kronos had already given me offers in the past to help them, but I knew that neither one of them could be trusted. Whatever they promised me, it would backfire on me in the end.

"Listen, Hirius," Kronos said, apparently ignoring the fact that I had already refused him, "My army grows everyday. Those fools at Camp Half-Blood are completely outnumbered. It's only a matter of time before I destroy Olympus, so why not ensure yours and your friend's survival in my world and join me."

"Because I know you," I said, "And because you won't win."

Kronos was beginning to look angry now. "Look around you Hirius," he said, "Do you see how many others have joined me?"

He wasn't lying. All around me, I saw a decent number of demigods, all between the ages of twelve and eighteen, and all of them wearing celestial bronze armor. I recognized a few of them from when I stayed at Camp Half-Blood, but most of them didn't look at all familiar. The demigods went about their business, most of them ignoring the monsters, but a few of them looked nervous around them. No one took any notice of me or Kronos.

I shook my head at the sight of all of the demigods on the ship. I knew that Kronos must have made a bunch of promises to them that he wouldn't live up to in the end, but none of them could see through his deceit. I couldn't really blame any of them though. I knew all too well how persuasive Kronos could be. He had a way of getting into your head and making you believe whatever he wanted you to believe. Still, if any of these demigods were smart, they would be at Camp Half-Blood.

"I thought you would be able to see it now," Kronos said, "Zeus set you on a task you cannot possibly complete, your own father cursed you, and the gods have basically told you that you no longer exist." I didn't answer him. "Why do you insist on defending them?"

"Because I know that whatever they've done can't possibly be any worse than what you would do," I said, "And like I said, you won't win."

"Can't you see it," Kronos asked, "There is no way that I can lose."

"Then why do you need me then," I asked, "If you're so sure that you can win, then why do you need me to help you?"

"My plan can progress much faster that way," Kronos said, "I just need you to kill Percy Jackson."

"Why can't you do it," I asked, "You seem pretty confident about your own strength."

"I have tried," Kronos said, "But he always seems to slip out of my grasp." I smiled and started laughing. Kronos had just made a huge mistake. "Is something funny," the titan lord asked.

"Not really," I said calming down, "But Hades asked me to do the same exact thing." I stared at Kronos silently for a moment. "I guess everybody really hates that guy, huh," I said, "Or, maybe, you're afraid of him."

Any hint of emotion disappeared from Kronos' face. He just stared at me for a moment. "Don't make me laugh," he said, "I'm no more afraid of Jackson than I am of you."

"You're a really bad liar you know," I said, "You know that he's the Prophecy Child, and I'm guessing that you already failed to convince him to join you." Kronos didn't answer me, but that was enough to tell me that I was right. "Then you already know that you can't win," I said, "Jackson's going to fulfill the Prophecy and stop you, end of story. The only reason that you want me to kill him is that you know that you can't do it yourself." Kronos continued to stare at me, showing no emotion in his expression. His silence was all the confirmation I needed.

"Very well," he said, "If that is your answer, then your fate is decided."

"You should already know that I don't believe in stupid things like fate."

Kronos didn't respond to me. Instead, he just started laughing, a loud, rumbling sound that reminded me of the very last time that I had seen him. Back then, I thought that I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore, but now I was reminded of the fact that he was back and that I might have to fight him again. As confident as I sounded as I spoke to him, I didn't think that I could beat him a second time. The sound of his laughter was the only thing about him that scared me. And that was all I heard as my dream faded to black.

"Hirius," I heard Thalia yell, "Wake up!"

My eyes shot open and I was back in our hotel room, Thalia kneeling over me with a concerned look on her face, which was a surprise to see. I was sweating; my clothes and blanket were soaked in it. The blanket and sheet I had been using were scattered on the floor like I had been tossing around in my sleep. I sat up and examined the scene…yup, just another normal night for me.

"Gods, don't ever do that," Thalia said as she stood up, "You scared me half to death."

"You," I said as I stood next to her, "Worried about me?"

"Shut up," she said, "You started shaking and convulsing, I thought you were having a seizure or something."

"I didn't know you cared," I said.

Thalia looked away from me, attempting to hide the fact that her face was turning red. "Let's just get going," she said, "It's already morning." With that, she stormed out of the room. I followed her, a smile on my face. Maybe Thalia wasn't as bad as she let on.

We left the hotel and found our way to a clothing shop where we bought a few heavy jackets that we hoped would keep us warm on the mountains. From there, we started to make our way to the mountains on foot. We were lucky that there was hardly any snow on the ground, considering where we were, but it was obvious that a storm was moving in and fast. I didn't think it was a good idea to go looking for the Nemean lion in the middle of a snowstorm, but Thalia didn't want to waste another day, so we trudged on despite the danger.

Before long, the storm hit and a light, powdery snow began to fall. It wasn't much, but it began to take its toll fast. About an inch of snow covered the ground now, making it difficult to continue onward on foot. I tried to tell Thalia that it was a huge mistake to keep going, but she continued to argue that we couldn't stop. It was already clear that we weren't getting anywhere fast. And, by the looks of things, this wasn't even the worst of the storm.

"Thalia," I said as the mountains came into sight, "We should turn back."

"Why," she asked, "We're already here."

"Do you not see that a storm is about to hit," I asked, "We'll be in trouble if it does while we're in the mountains."

Thalia stopped and watched the sky for a moment. Dark clouds had rolled in since we had left. Snow was falling harder now than it had been before, though it was still hardly much of a problem yet. Despite that, Thalia would have to be crazy to think that we would be okay if we kept going.

"It'll be fine," she said, "Come on, we need to get going." She didn't give me a chance to argue with her.

The storm didn't pick up at all as we explored the mountains, but I wasn't convinced that it would be fine. Dark clouds still hung ominously in the sky, they were a distance away from us, but they were approaching fast. We were in serious trouble once they caught up with us. I could only hope that Thalia would realize the danger we were in before it was too late.

The weather went from peaceful to dangerous in the blink of an eye. All at once, snow began falling in a furry, the wind picked up so that it felt like it was trying to push us back, and the temperature felt like it dropped at least ten degrees, maybe even more. The snow and wind made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of me. The cold was so bitter that the heavy jacket I bought was hardly making much of a difference. We were walking blind and the cold was going to kill us if we didn't find somewhere warm fast.

"Thalia," I called over the blowing wind, "We need to head back now!" She didn't answer me. "Thalia," I yelled louder thinking that she must not have heard me. She didn't answer me. She continued to walk forward. Her pace had slowed a great deal, I guessed that it must have been because of the storm, but now it looked like something was seriously wrong with her. As I watched her, she collapsed into the snow without warning. "Thalia," I yelled again as I ran to her side.

I pulled Thalia out of the snow, which was deep enough now that it was becoming impossible to walk through. She didn't look good. Her face had turned a bright red color and the rest of her body was shivering uncontrollably. I tried to wake her, but I had no luck. She was going to die soon if I didn't do something.

I knew that I had to act fast, but I didn't know what to do. We were out on a mountain, miles from any town or city, and we were stuck in the middle of a snowstorm. I looked all around me for an answer, but it was impossible to see anything. Seeing in the dark wasn't hard for me, but seeing through a snowstorm was another story. Luckily, I spotted something. A few feet above us was what looked like a cliff with an entrance to a cave.

It wasn't much, but it would at least offer us protection from the storm. The only problem was getting up to it. Climbing up to the cliff would've been hard enough by myself, but I wasn't sure that I could make it if I had to carry Thalia up along with me. Of course, there was more than one way for me to travel. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the image of the cliff above me. Before long, Thalia and I were flung forward and, when I opened my eyes, we were up on the cliff, the entrance to the cave right in front of us.

I carried Thalia inside and sat her up against a wall near the entrance. We were protected from the snow and wind, but the inside of the cave was no warmer than it was outside. I used my powers to summon a backpack that had a few supplies in it, which included, among other things, two magical items, one being a small heater and the other being a light, neither of which required any type of power source to operate. I set the heater up and turned it on, placing it closer to Thalia than myself. Immediately, the air in the cave began to warm up. It wasn't a huge improvement, but it would at least keep Thalia and me from freezing to death.

I sat down and waited for Thalia to wake up. While I did, I thought about what we were going to do from here. Thalia said that the Nemean Lion was found in the mountains in the myth, but that barely helped us at all. Even if we were going to find it in the mountains, the Rocky Mountain range was huge, and if we were going to be plagued by more storms like this, well, let's just say that I wasn't too optimistic about our chances of finding the monster. We had already wasted close to a month looking for this thing. At this rate, we didn't stand a chance of completing the labors in time.

I was just starting to feel the usual hopelessness that plagued me whenever I thought about my curse when Thalia decided to wake up. She sat up and looked at me. She stared at me silently for a moment before speaking up.

"What happened," she asked.

"You passed out," I said.

She fixed me with a hard glare. "I knew that," she said, "What I meant was how did we get here?" I gave her a quick rundown of what happened after she collapsed. After I finished, she stared at me for a long time before letting out a sigh and looking away from me. "Well…thanks," she said, "And sorry, for passing out I mean, I guess the cold just got to me."

We sat in an awkward silence after that. I turned my light on so that Thalia wouldn't be in the dark, though I was sure that it barely helped her. Of course, seeing in the dark was hardly a problem for me. I could see the whole of the cave we were in, which was mostly an open cavern with enough room to fit at least twenty people comfortably. Opposite the opening we came in, the cave went deeper into the mountain, but I couldn't tell how deep. The place was quiet, and empty, or, at least I thought it was.

"Did you hear that," Thalia asked after some time.

I listened, but all I could hear was the sound of the storm still raging outside. I shook my head. Thalia reached over and grabbed the light that was sitting next to me and shined it across the cave. Eventually, she stopped and aimed the light at something on the far end of the cave. It was a large rock that looked normal enough aside from the fact that it was orange.

"I swear I heard something over that way," Thalia said, "Maybe something behind that rock."

Even as she said it, I saw the rock begin to move. "Thalia," I said.

"What?"

"That isn't a rock."

Everything happened so fast that I barely had the time to register it. The rock, except now I knew that it wasn't a rock, stood up and lunged at me. I pushed off the cave wall behind me and barely avoided being skewered by a set of massive claws. I turned around and found myself face to face with a large orange lion, almost twice the size of a normal one.

The lion glared at me with two yellow eyes, waiting for the chance to strike. I watched it closely, not wanting to show any sign of fear or weakness since I knew that the monster would attack me if I did. I could've stayed like that all night too, but I took my eyes off of it just for a second to check on Thalia. That was all the chance the lion needed to strike.

The monster lunged at me for the second time. I rolled away and tried to summon my sword, but the beast was too quick for me. Before I knew what was happening, I felt myself being thrown off of my feet and sent flying across the cave. I slammed into the ground hard and nearly passed out from the collision.

I stood up quickly and focused on the Nemean Lion again, but it had turned its attention away from me and was now glaring at Thalia, who seemed to have pulled a spear and shield from out of nowhere. The lion tried to move in closer to its victim, but Thalia kept it at a distance with her spear. She looked like she was holding her ground well enough, but it was painfully obvious that she hadn't recovered yet. She looked like she might pass out again at any minute.

I had to act fast. I summoned Heartstopper and charged forward. I swung at the lion's exposed backside, thinking that I was going to finish it off for sure. My sword connected with the lion's fur, but then something strange happened. Heartstopper glanced right off of the monster leaving nothing, not even a scratch. It was like my blade had suddenly become incapable of cutting trough fur.

"What the hell was that," I yelled.

"Don't you know anything," Thalia yelled at me, "The Nemean Lion's fur is as hard as diamonds."

"Now she tells me," I yelled as the lion turned to attack me again.

I jumped back and swung at the monster again, but Heartstopper glanced off of its fur for the second time. The monster attacked and I dodged again. Thalia tried to strike it from behind, but she had about as much luck as I had. We kept its attention shifting between the two of us, but we weren't doing any damage to it. At this rate, we were going to tire ourselves out before we thought of a way to kill this thing. We needed time to rethink our strategy.

The lion pounced at me. Instead of dodging, I ran forward. I pulled the darkness in the cave into a shade and launched it at the lion, which was sent flying into the wall on the far side of the cavern. Thalia and I tried to make a break for the exit, but the lion was too fast and it blocked our path before we could get out.

The monster paced the ground between us and the mouth of the cave, watching us, daring us to try something. I looked around for some way out of this, but we were trapped. There were only two options now, stand and fight, or run deeper into the cave and hope that there was another way out. By the way things had gone so far, neither option seemed very reasonable, but at least one of them gave us a small chance of surviving.

"Thalia," I said, "On my mark, we run."

"What…"

I didn't answer. Instead, I stepped forward, like I was making a move toward the mouth of the cave. The lion took the bait and tried to attack me. I quickly formed another shade and used it as a shield between myself and the lion. I forced the shade forward, pushing the lion back and slamming it into the wall behind it. This was our only chance.

"Now," I yelled.

I grabbed Thalia's hand and pulled her along behind me as I ran deeper into the cave. Behind me, I heard the lion get to its feet, let out a massive roar, and then bounded after us. I didn't dare look back at the lion for fear that I might lose my footing. I picked up speed, hoping that I wouldn't turn a corner and find that we had reached a dead end. The footfalls of the lion behind us grew louder with every passing second. Now all we could do was hope that we were running for another exit.

As we ran deeper into the cave, the Nemean lion gaining on us, I started to lose hope, but then we turned another corner and another exit came into sight. Thalia and I darted forward, each of us running as fast we could. The lion was still close behind us, but maybe if we could get outside I could trap it in the cave or something and buy us some time to think of a way to kill it.

The exit was only a few inches in front of us when we both stopped dead in our tracks. The storm was still raging, and it was hard to see anything, but I could tell that the path dropped off at the opening. The moment we left the cave, we would be falling down the side of the mountain, and there was no telling how far we would fall if we jumped.

Thalia pulled her hand out of my grip and backed away from me, her face turning pale. Behind her, the Nemean lion had appeared at the end of the path and was already bounding its way toward us, bloodlust in its eyes. I looked back at the drop outside of the cave and then at the lion again. We really didn't have much of a choice here.

"Thalia," I yelled. She didn't answer. "We have to jump!" She didn't say anything, she didn't even move. She just stood there staring at the mouth of the cave. "Thalia," I yelled again hoping to get through to her, "We have to jump! We'll be slaughtered if we don't!"

She still refused to say anything. All she managed was to shake her head frantically and stare at me as if to say, 'There's no way I'm doing that.' The lion was approaching fast, it was only a few feet away now, and Thalia looked like she was glued to the spot, her face as white as the snow outside. What the heck was wrong with this girl anyway? Was she afraid of heights or something?

The lion let out another roar as it pounced forward and tried to attack Thalia. I used my powers to shield her from the monster, which ran into another shade before it could get to her. I grabbed her hand again.

"Come on," I yelled.

I ran for the exit, pulling Thalia along with me, and jumped. My stomach dropped the moment my feet left the ground. I was used to heights, I had flown on a plane before, but that was nothing compared to the sensation I felt right now. I was in the air, no way of knowing how far below me the ground was, and there was nothing under me to keep me from falling. It was almost like how I imagined flying, without an airplane of course, would feel like, terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time. I actually thought that it might be nice if I could stay like that forever. Of course, not even demigods can beat gravity.

We dropped like a ton of bricks and, almost instantly, we hit the snow covered mountainside. I lost my grip on Thalia's hand as the two of us slid down the slope of the mountain. I tried to slow myself, or to stop altogether, but it was no good. There was nothing for me to grab onto and, even when I did manage to grab something, the snow and ice made it impossible to keep my grip on it. Eventually, the slope leveled out and I rolled onto a flat surface.

I dug myself out of the snow and got to my feet. I looked up at where we had fallen from. The storm had finally calmed to a light snowfall, but I could still barely see the opening of the cave where we had been a moment ago. We must have fallen at least fifty feet, luckily the snow made the fall a lot less painful.

I looked around, hoping to find Thalia nearby, but half expecting the Nemean Lion to be standing next to me. As far as I could tell, we were still pretty high up in the mountains, which was lucky since we probably wouldn't have survived if we had fallen to the bottom of the mountain. Thalia had landed just a few feet away from me.

"Thalia," I said as I walked over to her. She looked over at me as she sat there in the snow. Her face was still pale and she didn't say anything. "Are you…"

I didn't get the chance to say anymore. Just then, I heard another roar. I looked up just in time to see the Nemean lion, which must have jumped down after us, leaping at me from the mountainside. I didn't have any time to dodge, so I summoned my sword and caught to monster's claws on the blade. I was shoved to the ground and buried in the snow once again. I held the lion at bay with Heartstopper, but it was much stronger than I was.

I thought for sure that it was going to get the better of me. That was when Thalia appeared from out of nowhere. She jumped onto the monster's back and tried to stab her spear into the back of its neck. Her spear glanced right off of the lion's fur, but it was enough to distract it.

The lion turned its head and tried to bite at Thalia's spear. It was only a second, but that was all that I needed. I pulled my sword away from it, the lion falling forward when I did. I stabbed Heartstopper into the lion's open mouth and pierced the only soft skin on its body. I looked up at Thalia, who understood what I was telling her to do, and she jumped off of the lion. I brought my feet up and kicked the lion in the chest, throwing it over the side of the mountain and down to the base.

I laid there in the snow for a long time after that, wondering if the lion was dead or not, but not really caring at the moment. The snow had finally stopped falling, but clouds still covered the sky, leaving the air cold and the sky dark. After a long moment, I stood up and looked over at Thalia, who was sitting in the snow nearby. Thalia looked over at me, seeming to realize that I was still there.

"Well," I said, "That was unpleasant." I stood up and offered Thalia my hand, which she took and I helped her to her feet. "So what happened to you back there anyway," I asked.

Thalia's face had returned to its normal color, but she still didn't look like she had gotten over whatever had happened. "Yeah, that," she said, "It's just this whole…" She trailed off. Clearly she didn't want to talk about it. Maybe she really was afraid of heights.

"Alright," I said, "I get it. You don't have to tell me."

Thalia looked at me and smiled. Then she turned her attention to the spot where the Nemean lion had fallen over the mountainside. "Do you think it's dead," she asked.

I nodded. "I can't sense it anymore," I said, "It might be too far away, but I'm pretty sure it's dead."

Thalia nodded. "Alright then," she said, "Guess we should get going then."

"Going," I asked, "Where?"

"Where do you think," she asked, "We've already wasted enough time with the first labor. We need to hurry if we want to finish the rest of the labors before August."

Without another word, she turned and started walking, looking for a way down the mountain. I caught up with her after a moment. "You know," I said, "We could just shadow travel back to Denver."

"Yeah, about that," Thalia said, "Why didn't you just take us back to the hotel earlier instead of going to the cave?"

A smile crossed my face. "Because I didn't think about it until now," I said feeling like this was definitely the kind of answer that Justin would give. Thalia began laughing and I couldn't help but join her. Maybe this journey wasn't going to be as bad as I thought before.


	3. Chapter 3

**-Old Friends-**

* * *

**Note: Yay, chapter 3, and I'm starting to get a little faster with the updates now, which is always good, hopefully I can start getting back on the pace that I was on with the original. Anyway, this chapter is a bit slow, and kind of short too, it's basically just a lot of important story elements being thrown out at you really quick, so it might be a bit boring. I promise the next chapter will be more interesting though.**

**With that said, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

After we made it back to Denver, Thalia and I decided that it was best to stay another night in the city. Both of us were exhausted from the trek up the mountain, not to mention our fight with the Nemean lion, so neither one of us was in much of a mood to go anywhere soon. We ended up getting another room at the hotel we stayed at the night before and, for the first time in a while, I actually managed to get through the night without being interrupted by some crazy dream.

The next morning, we got on a bus heading out of the city and toward the east of the United States. We traveled in silence for a long time, neither one of us feeling much like talking about the labors after finishing the first of them. Thalia didn't say anything about it, but I could tell that she was thinking the same thing that I was. We were never going to complete them on time. It had taken us nearly a month to finish the first labor, which only left us a little more than five months to finish the other eleven. I wasn't the best at math, but even I could tell you that the odds were clearly against us.

There was another reason that the mood between us wasn't the highest. I had told Thalia about my dream the other night, where I had spoken to Kronos. We hadn't discussed it any further, but we both knew that it wasn't a good sign. Kronos was clearly getting ready to put his plans into motion, but neither of us knew when he would decide to attack Olympus. Our friends were in danger and might have to fight a war soon and here we were doing absolutely nothing to help them prepare for it.

"So," I said trying to break the silence, "Where are we heading this time."

"Florida," she answered without looking at me.

"Florida," I asked, "Why?"

"The next labor," Thalia said, "We have to kill the Lernaean Hydra. Hercules found it in a swamp, wetlands, the Florida Everglades would be the best place to start if you ask me."

I let out a sigh. Once again the Fates seemed to be working against us. Just like the Rocky Mountains, the Florida Everglades covered a huge region, not nearly as large as the mountains, but it was still too large an area for two people to cover. Of course, the odds were always meant to be against us, we weren't meant to succeed after all. That was how Zeus wanted it to be.

"So, can I ask you something," I asked trying to change the subject. Thalia nodded. "On the train to Denver, you told me that you didn't have to tag along with me," I said.

"I did," Thalia confirmed.

"So why did you come along then," I asked, "Wouldn't you rather be doing something more…Important?"

Thalia sighed. "I'm not entirely sure why I came along actually," she said, "This is the last thing I wanted to be doing at a time like this…No offense."

"None taken."

"Anyway," she went on, "The reason I agreed to help you, well, I don't know, I had the feeling that I needed to, like there was some reason that Artemis wanted me specifically to help you, she could've gotten any of the others to go with you after all."

"Oh," I said, "I always thought that she chose you because you were Zeus's daughter. That it would be easier for her to convince him to let you help me."

"That might have been part of it," Thalia said, "But she probably could've convinced Zeus to let anyone come with you really."

I turned away from her and looked out of the window. If Artemis could convince Zeus to let anyone tag along with me, why wouldn't she convince him to let one of my friends help me? If I had Sarah or Justin with me, the first labor would've gone by much faster. Not that I had anything against Thalia, but things would've been much smoother if I hadn't been trying to convince her that I was worth her time for the better part of a month.

"Speaking of which," Thalia spoke up, "When we first met back in New York, you said that it wasn't the first time, but I don't seem to remember anything about you."

I turned to look at her again. "Oh yeah, that," I said, "It was, umm, a long time ago, you know, you probably just forgot."

Thalia eyed me suspiciously. "I think I would've remembered someone like you," she said, "Even before you told me who you were, I could tell that you were a demigod. I know that I would've at least talked to you or something."

"Ummm," I said not really knowing what to tell her, "It's kind of hard to explain."

"I'm sure we have the time," Thalia said, "It's a long way to Florida."

I let out a sigh. This girl was just as stubborn as Sarah and Justin were. "Well," I said, "It's gonna be a long story."

I told her about how I had met her the first time. Well, I didn't really start there. I thought it would be more appropriate to start from the beginning, with the orphanage and Emily and about how we ran away. I ran through that part quickly, telling Thalia just enough so she would understand what an impact our meeting would eventually have on me. I had a hard time getting through the part where Emily disappeared, especially now that I knew what would become of her, and then I told her about when the two of us met and what she had told me. When I finished, the two of us were silent for a time.

"So I set you off to find your sister," Thalia said.

"Yeah," I said, "In a way, you kind of saved my life. If you hadn't pushed me into looking for her, I probably would've just given up and died."

Thalia was silent again. "Did you ever find her?"

I swallowed. It took me a moment to answer. "Kind of," I said. I told Thalia about the time I went into the Underworld.

Thalia took a moment to answer. "I'm sorry," she said, "And because of me you ended up with this curse too."

"No," I said quickly, "That was my own fault. Hades would've found another way to get me moving if you hadn't come along. Don't blame yourself for my misfortune." Thalia nodded, but she hardly looked convinced. "And besides," I said, "If I had stayed in that alleyway, I'd be dead, plus I wouldn't have met all of the friends that I made along the way. When you compare it to that, this curse is nothing but a minor inconvenience." Thalia looked at me for a moment and then smiled.

I smiled back at her. I was clearly putting on a front, but I was glad that it was enough to cheer Thalia up. Really though, I was honestly concerned about what was going to happen to me. This was the only shot that I had at getting rid of my curse, if we failed here then I would have no way of freeing myself of it. If that happened, well, I didn't like to think about it.

"Thanks," Thalia said, "And don't worry, I'll help you complete the labors, even if the odds are against us, I'm sure we can find away." I smiled at her and nodded. Thalia sat back and stretched her arms. "I just can't believe I forgot about you," she said, "That doesn't seem at all like me, especially if we talked."

"There might be a reason actually," I said. Thalia looked at me, confused. "A few years after I left New York," I said, "I ended up at Camp Half-Blood. I found out about, well, you know, what happened to you there. I also happened to find out that it happened before we met."

"So, then," she said, "If I was still a pine tree at the time, how could we have talked?"

"I don't know," I said sitting back and letting out another sigh, "I've been trying to figure it out ever since then, but I can't. I was hoping that you would know, but now, I don't know, maybe I was right the first time."

"The first time?"

I nodded. "I've always been afraid that it was actually Hades or Kronos that I had talked to back then, that one of them had tricked me somehow." I paused for a moment, "Maybe I was right."

"I don't know," Thalia said, "I don't remember anything from that time. I might have reached out to you somehow, but, if I did, I don't remember doing it."

I was silent again for a long time. "But…"

"What?"

I shook my head. "It's stupid," I said, "But three years ago, when I left Camp Half-Blood, I stopped on the hill and I spoke to you, or the tree I guess. I wanted to thank you for everything. I was sure that you didn't hear me, but then I felt a warm feeling, the kind of feeling you get when you know that you've really helped someone." I paused. "It was strange," I went on, "It felt like it just came out of nowhere." I went silent again for a moment. "Maybe I imagined it."

Thalia didn't answer me for a long time. The look on her face became distant, like she was remembering something from a long time ago. "I remember that," she said, "It's faint, but I remember something like that." She paused for a moment. "Back then," she continued, "Everything was dark and lonely and cold, I thought for sure that I was dead. But then I heard something, a voice, someone speaking to me. I couldn't hear them clearly, but, somehow, it made me fell better, like everything would be okay."

Neither one of us spoke for a long time after that. We just sat there and stared at each other, both of us wondering what in the world happened to us during that time. It all seemed impossible, like a fairy tale or something, but at the same time, it felt right, like, somehow, the two of us were meant to help each other.

"But, how," I said, "It doesn't make sense."

Thalia shook her head, "I couldn't tell you," she said, "But I might know why." I looked at her quizzically, but I didn't say anything. "I'm not sure how I did it," she went on, "But, well, I had a brother once."

"Once?"

"Yeah," she said, "He, umm, disappeared when I was young." She was quiet for a moment. "I don't know how I might have managed it," she went on, "but maybe that's why I tried to contact you."

I sat back and stared at the seat in front of me without saying a word. For a long time, I didn't say anything. I still couldn't help but think that all of that was too unbelievable. I thought I might finally be close to learning what had happened all those years ago, but I was no closer now than I was three years ago.

"So what do you think Kronos is planning," Thalia asked suddenly after a long time.

I didn't look at her as I thought back to my dream a few nights ago. Kronos had built up an army to fight against the gods, but even he should've known that it wouldn't be enough. Between Olympus and Camp Half-Blood, Kronos wouldn't stand a chance of defeating them. So what made him so confident? He made it pretty clear to me that he was unstoppable, he seemed to believe it himself, but it was clear that he didn't stand a chance. He must have had a plan. Maybe he was waiting for something.

I shook my head. "I'm not sure," I said, "But I know that it can't be good."

Thalia was silent for a moment. "I just can't help but think that we should be doing something."

I nodded. "I'd like to help too," I said, "I mean, the gods have pretty much prevented me from helping at all, but I still think I could at least do something." The two of us were quiet again. "Hey, look at it this way," I said, "Even if we could help, I doubt there's much we could do until Kronos actually decides to move." Thalia nodded. "For now, I say we focus on finishing the labors," I said, "Then we can worry about Kronos."

Thalia nodded. "I'm sure our friends will need all the help they can get." I smiled.

I thought back to Sarah and Justin as the bus rolled on. I still hadn't gotten the chance to contact them since I left and all the talk of Kronos was starting to worry me. If they were out in the open somewhere, then they were fair game for Kronos. What would happen to them if he caught up with them? Obviously nothing good would come of that. I had to at least make sure they were safe.

"Speaking of which," I said, "I've been meaning to send an Iris message to someone, but I'm out of Drachmas. You wouldn't happen to…"

"I've got it covered," Thalia said as she pulled a Golden Drachma from out of nowhere and held it up for me to see, "I only have one left though."

"You wouldn't mind if I used it?"

"No," she said, "But I will expect you to repay me eventually."

I nodded. "Just name your price."

"Later," she said, "Let's just get to Florida for now."

The bus rolled along as the afternoon began to fade. Thalia and I decided to swap stories during the remainder of the trip. I had only met the hunters once, and never really talked to any of them, so there was little that I knew about them. Thalia was a well of information though. I wanted to learn all that I could about them, mostly because Emily had run off to join them and I was kind of wondering why, unfortunately, we didn't have the time to talk much.

We got off and transferred through several busses before we got to Virginia. By the time our bus stopped and we got off in Richmond, the sun had already set. Thalia and I discussed whether or not we should stay the night, but, in the end, we decided to hop on a train heading for Miami, Florida. We both slept through the whole trip. We woke up around three in the morning as the train pulled into a station.

We got off the train and looked around for a good place to send an Iris message. Of course, we needed to wait for the sun to rise, but we thought it best to find a source to make a rainbow before the sun rose. We hoped to find maybe a car wash or something, but we ended up hopping a fence into someone's backyard where we found a hose. It might not be the best way, but we could make do with it.

As the sun rose and light shone on us, Thalia took the hose and turned the nozzle to the mist setting and squeezed it. After a moment, a faint rainbow began to form in the mist as it sprayed the air in front of me. It wouldn't give us a good connection, but it would work. I held the Drachma up and started the prayer to Iris, but I stopped as a thought occurred to me.

"What's wrong," Thalia asked after a moment.

"Well," I said, "I'm not really sure where they are."

"So," Thalia said, "You just have to say the name of the person you want to contact."

"But I just thought," I said, "What if I can't reach them? I mean, what if they're somewhere that Iris can't get to?"

"We won't have a second chance at this," Thalia said, "We only have one Drachma."

I nodded. I thought about where Sarah and Justin might be. The note I left them had told them to stay put, but there was no chance that they had listened to that. After a day or two, they had probably started searching for me. But where would they start looking? Maybe the Underworld, or Tartarus if they thought that I had decided to go after Kronos on my own, though I doubted they would try and go to Tartarus. Or maybe they were in one of the towns near where we had camped. There was no way of knowing for sure, and if I couldn't get through to them then I wouldn't be able to contact them in the future.

"Here's an idea," Thalia said after a moment, "Why not try to contact someone at Camp Half-Blood."

"Someone at camp?"

"Yeah," she went on, "You must be on good terms with someone there, you could try them."

"But what good would that do?"

"Camp has enough Golden Drachmas to go around," she explained, "If your friends are somewhere that we can't contact them through Iris, then have someone at camp try to get through to them. If they can't, they can always try later and at least get a message to your friends."

I thought about it and it made sense. If I tried and failed to contact Sarah and Justin now, then I had no way of getting to them any time soon, but if someone from camp missed them, they could just contact them later and pass the message on for me. It sounded like a good enough plan, but there was one problem.

"I'm still technically in exile," I said, "I'm not supposed to interfere."

"You're in exile, but you're on a quest given to you by the gods," she said, "I think they'll overlook this."

There really was no arguing with this girl. I held the Drachma up again and tossed it into the rainbow still being formed by the mist from the hose. As I did, I thought hard on the words of the prayer to Iris. _Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering_. The Drachma disappeared into thin air.

"Annabeth Chase," I said thinking of one of the only people that might be willing to help me, "Camp Half-Blood."

The air in front of me shimmered for a moment before a blurry image appeared out of thin air. It was hard to tell what I was looking at, but I was able to make out a few details. The image showed the inside of the Big House back at camp. Annabeth was sitting at a table along with Chiron, a centaur who was in charge of training new heroes, and a few other campers who I couldn't see clearly. The group seemed to be discussing something important, but I couldn't hear a word of the conversation.

"Annabeth," I said, nearly yelling at the sight of her after all this time.

She looked at me, noticing the Iris message for the first time. She had grown a lot since I had seen her last, but her demeanor was mostly the same. The moment she saw me, she looked like she was going to fall right out of her chair from sheer shock. I guess even demigods aren't used to images of old friends appearing out of nowhere.

"No way," she said, looking at me like I was some kind of ghost, "Hirius!?"

An explosion of whispering voices came from the other campers at the mention of my name, most confused, a few excited, and one or two angry. I couldn't make out the appearance of the other campers, but it was evident that most of them didn't know who I was. To my surprise, the ones that did recognize my name actually sounded like they were happy to hear it.

"Long time, no see," I said.

The surprised look on Annabeth's face was replaced by one of anger like the sound of my voice suddenly reminded her of the fact that I never got to say goodbye to her or any of the others for that matter. "It's about time we heard from you," she said, "After vanishing without so much as a word to anyone."

"I didn't really have much of a choice," I said, "I was kind of forced to leave." Annabeth looked like she didn't hear me. "Look, I'm sorry okay," I said, "If it helps, I really miss everyone from camp."

The look on her face didn't change and, for a moment, I thought that contacting her was going to end up being a bad choice. But then she smiled at me. She looked like she was going to say something, but then two other girls pushed themselves into the image. One was a thin blond girl and the other was a muscular brunette. Silena Beuregard and Clarisse La Rue stared at me in astonishment.

"Hirius," they yelled at the same time.

"Is that really you," Silena asked. I nodded. "I can't believe it," she said, "After Justin and Sarah showed up without you, we thought…"

"Justin and Sarah are there," I asked quickly. Silena nodded. "Are they okay?'

"Yes," Annabeth said, "They were a little beat up when they got here, but they're not seriously injured."

"Where are they," I asked, speaking even more quickly now, "Can you get them? I need to…"

"Hirius," I heard Chiron's distinct voice yelling. He did not sound happy to hear from me. The girls disappeared from the image and Chiron's face appeared in their place. "You shouldn't have done this," he said, "You know that the gods will not be happy with you."

"I'm well aware of that," I said, "But circumstances have changed recently." I told Chiron and the others, who I assumed were still listening even if I couldn't see them, about my conversation with the gods and my new quest. Chiron was silent for a long time after I finished.

"I suppose they do have other worries as of late," Chiron said.

"Oh yeah," I said, "I'm sure the gods are busy enough with Kronos running around and Typhoeus ready to escape." Chiron looked away from me and didn't say anymore. I sighed. "Look, I just need to talk to Sarah and Justin, okay?"

Chiron didn't answer me right away. He looked off and apparently was talking something over with Annabeth, but I couldn't hear what they were saying. I waited for a while before Chiron looked at me again, nodded, and then disappeared from sight. After a moment Annabeth, Silena, and Clarisse appeared once more.

"Sorry," Annabeth said, "Things aren't exactly the best around camp these days. We just don't need another reason to anger the gods."

"I'm aware of the situation."

"Yeah, you already had a run-in with Kronos back then," she said, "But things have changed over the years."

"I've been kept up to speed on most of it," I said, "Not that I wanted to, my dreams have just been keeping me up to date."

Annabeth was quiet for a moment. "Somebody must want you to interfere then," she said, "But who would want you to?"

I shrugged. "Beats me," I said, "Hades might still have some grandiose idea that I'll still help, Kronos could still be trying to get me on his side, or it might be one of the two Olympians who still think that I can be trusted."

"I would think that Kronos would've given up on turning you by now," she said.

"No," I said, "He's still at it." I told her about the dream I had a few nights before.

"He wanted you to kill Percy," Annabeth asked when I finished.

I nodded. "I don't know how much you heard about it, but Hades wanted me to do the same thing three years ago," I said, "With him gone, that leaves, what, just me as the Prophecy Child again."

"Well," she said, "You or Thalia. She's back you know, we…"

"Oh, I know already," I said, "She's here with me actually."

"Hi Annabeth," Thalia called out from the side.

"What," Annabeth yelled, "She's with you, but…Why?"

"Artemis wanted to help me," I said, "So she sent Thalia along to provide some assistance."

"I'd come over and talk," Thalia said, "But I'm kind of in the middle of keeping our connection right now."

"The surprises never end do they," Annabeth said with a smile, "First Thalia reappears, then we find out that Hades has more children, then…"

"Wait a minute," I said, "Hades has more children?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said, "I'm surprised you didn't know already." I shook my head. "Well, there were two of them, Bianca Di Angelo and Nico Di Angelo. We found them about a year ago."

"Bianca joined the hunters," Thalia said, "Unfortunately, she's gone now."

I was silent for a moment as I let that sink in. "We Hades kids do not have good luck with siblings do we," I said, "What about Nico?"

"He ran off in a fit of rage after he found out Bianca was dead," Annabeth explained.

"Sounds about right," I commented.

"We caught up with him several months ago," Annabeth said, "He doesn't stick around camp though, he likes to wonder around the world by himself, you might have run into him without even realizing it."

I didn't say anything after that. I stood there and thought over what Annabeth had just told me. Two more children of Hades, but where would they have come from? Was Hades planning to use them as some sort of back up plan if I failed to join him? But then, had Nico already refused him, or did Hades have yet to even try to turn him? My head was starting to hurt from all of the thoughts running through it. Maybe it was best to just put this aside for now.

"Well that's," I said, "…Unexpected."

Someone must have come into the Big House at that point, because Annabeth looked off to the side without answering me. Before long, Silena and Clarisse disappeared from the image and were replaced by Justin and Sarah, who each had a look of complete bewilderment on their faces. However, the moment they saw me, it was replaced with relief and excitement, and maybe just a bit of anger.

"Hirius," they screamed at the same time.

"What the heck man," Justin said.

"Where are you," Sarah asked.

"How are you just gonna up and leave like that?"

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said before the two of them could get carried away, "And sorry again for leaving, I actually planned on coming back within a day or two, but my plans had to change."

"What do you mean they had to change," Justin asked, "What in the world are you doing?" I told them the short version of what happened after I left our campsite. "Oh," Justin said, "That sounds…fun."

"Wait, really," Sarah said, "You mean there's a chance of breaking your curse now?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but I don't have much more time to talk," I said realizing how long we had been there. "Look, how fast do you guys think you can get to Miami?"

"Florida," Sarah asked, "A couple hours if we can get a flight out soon."

"Good," I said, "I need you guys to get out here and…" I was cut off by a clap of thunder, despite it being a nice day. I looked up at the sky. "Oh, shut up," I yelled much to everyone else's surprise, "I just need something from them is all!" I looked at Sarah and Justin again. "Just get out here quick okay." Sarah nodded. "Alright, I'll talk to you guys when you get here then."

I was about to disconnect us when Annabeth spoke up. "Wait Hirius," she said. I stopped so she could speak. "I just wanted to say," she went on, "Good luck."

Silena and Clarisse appeared in the image again, behind Justin and Sarah. "From all of us," Silena added, "We're all hoping that you'll pull this off."

"Yeah," Clarisse said, "And fast too, we could really use your help on the front lines." I nodded. "And Hirius," she added quickly, "I'm sorry, for accusing you of stealing the master bolt back then."

"And I'm sorry I never got to say goodbye to anyone," I said looking between her, Silena, and Annabeth. "Maybe when we're finished with Kronos I can join in on a game of capture the flag."

We all smiled in turn at each other. Silena, Clarisse, and Annabeth each said there good-byes to me before disappearing. Justin and Sarah were left to stare at me for a moment, all three of us being silent. I could only imagine what the two of them might have been thinking.

"Hirius," Sarah finally spoke up, "You really are okay, right? You aren't hurt or anything, right?"

"Of course," I said, "I'm perfectly fine."

"Good," Sarah said, "BECAUSE WHEN I GET THERE I'M…"

I swiped my hand through the mist as fast as lightning, severing the connection with them and stopping Sarah before she could fly into a fit of rage. Thalia began laughing as she replaced the hose where we had found it. I looked at her, my face heating up as I did.

"I'm guessing she's your girlfriend."

I faced away from her and began walking away as I answered. "Yeah," I said, "What about it?"

Thalia caught up and followed behind me. "Oh nothing," she said, "But I'm sure you only managed to anger her even more just now."

"I probably did," I said, "But I can deal with that when she gets here."

"Oh," Thalia said, "And you don't think she'll be mad when she finds out that you've been alone with me all this time?"

I stopped dead in my tracks as Thalia spoke. Could I have really been that stupid? I was sure that I had mentioned Thalia at some point. I thought back through the whole conversation. I did mention Thalia, but not to Sarah, I only told Annabeth. This was not good. If she found out from Annabeth, or worse, found out by seeing me with Thalia, it was going to seem a lot worse than it actually was.

"Oh gods," I said.

Thalia turned to face me. "What," she asked.

"She's going to kill me."

Thalia began laughing again.


	4. Chapter 4

**-I Hate Snakes-**

* * *

**Note: So, I want to apologize to anyone who read the last chapter before I got to fix this little mistake. You see, sometimes, when I'm writing, I purposely leave sentences out when i know there's something i want to write there, but i can't quite write it yet, for whatever reason. Usually, i would either add in a sentence, or just remove the place holder and forget about it. Anyway, I forgot to do that for the last chapter and i ended up leaving the place holder in, which may or may not have annoyed people. So, sorry about that if you it got to you. Well, anyway, here we are at chapter four. I actually hoped to have this done a few days ago, but i ended up having more work than i thought i would over the weekend, and now test time is coming up and i'm just swamped right now *sighs* Anyway, i'm usually pretty good at managing time, so my writing shouldn't be affected too much by my increased work, but there may be some delay in coming posts.**

**Well, for now, as always, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

After managing to get over the realization that I may have just brought the wrath of hell down upon myself, Thalia and I started off toward the everglades on foot. It would've been nice if we could get a ride there, but we had spent the last of our money getting to Florida. That was going to make things very complicated for the rest of our trip, but I was hoping that the problem would be solved once Sarah and Justin got there. We would've waited for them, but we both agreed that it would be better if we had dealt with the hydra before they got there.

Walking wasn't so bad honestly, it wasn't like we had to go that far, and walking actually felt good for a change. Okay, let me rephrase that a bit. Walking wouldn't have been so bad if the two of us weren't demigods, and worse, children of two of the most powerful gods in existence. Yeah, that sounds more like how it felt.

I had neglected to realize that Miami was right on the edge of the sea of monsters, the Bermuda Triangle, and the fact that Thalia and I were both demigods must have caused every monster within a thirty mile radius to come running towards us thinking that they were about to get a free meal. I don't know how we managed to get through that Iris message without being attacked, but the monsters were making up for lost time. We were pretty much running for our lives by the time we made it to the everglades. Apparently the last time I was here wasn't enough to convince me that Miami is one of the top ten worst places to visit if you're a demigod.

We found ourselves in the everglades, a pack of hellhounds on our tail. I distinctly remembered that hellhounds had trouble running in wet, swampy areas like this. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly easy for Thalia and me to run through wetlands either. Luckily, we managed to lose the pack after a short time and we found ourselves hiding in a thick brush and hoping that no other monsters would find us anytime soon.

"This isn't exactly the way I pictured this going," Thalia said.

I looked over at her. She was covered in mud, due to the fact that she had slipped while we were running from the hellhounds. She also had a number of fresh wounds covering her body, a result of the numerous monsters we encountered on our way out of Miami, but she hardly took any notice of them. I was in no better shape, my hands and feet were caked in mud, so much so that I had trouble holding onto Heartstopper, which I had hidden away for the time being. I was also sporting multiple cuts and scrapes, but no serious injuries. Well, at least we were still alive.

"Does anything ever go the way you think it will," I said.

"Not really," Thalia said, "But it would be nice if it did for once."

We pulled ourselves out of our hiding spot and took a look around. The land was flat, covered in tall grass, trees, various other kinds of brush, and a lot of water. The ground was muddy, it looked like it might've just rained, but I guessed that it was like that naturally. There were plenty of places for monsters, animals, or a couple of demigods running from said monsters to hide. This wasn't even half of the land we had to search either. Who knew how many other hiding places there were over the everglades.

"Well," Thalia said, "Guess we should get started then."

"Where," I asked.

Thalia shrugged. "Anywhere that looks like it might be housing a giant, multi-headed snake," she said. She started forward but stopped and turned back to me. "By the way," she said as she tore a piece of cloth from the bottom of her garment, "The air around the Lernaean Hydra's lair is supposed to be toxic. You might want to have something to cover your mouth and nose when we get there." She turned and moved on again. I followed, tearing a piece of cloth off of my pant leg as I did.

We searched anywhere that came off as suspicious, a thick brush, a large, hollowed out tree, a mass of water that no animal seemed to want to get near, anywhere. Whenever we got close to a possible Hydra lair or whenever it felt like it was becoming hard for us to breathe, we would quickly cover our faces so we wouldn't be breathing in poison. I wasn't really sure if it would work, but Hercules had done the same thing in the myth so I had to bet that it would.

We had been searching for an hour with little luck. A few times, we thought that we had come across something, but it turned out to be a regular snake or some other animal that lived out in the everglades. Most of the animals we disturbed were not too happy to see us and we usually had to fend them off somehow, luckily my powers were enough to handle them.

The dangerous animals were the least of our worries though. We were attacked by monsters several times while we searched. It was nothing that we couldn't handle, a young Cyclopes or two here, a couple of hellhounds there, but they were annoying and did manage to keep us distracted from what we were supposed to be doing, which we were already having enough trouble with.

We fended off another group of hellhounds, after which Thalia punched a nearby tree. "Gods this is frustrating," she said, "Aren't we having enough trouble finding this thing without the monster attacks?"

"You didn't expect it to be too easy did you," I asked as I looked around expecting more enemies.

"Of course not," she said, "But we could catch a bit of a break here and there right?"

"We could," I said, "But that doesn't mean that we have to."

Thalia sighed. "Let's just get moving I guess."

We continued our search. We had both decided by that point to keep our weapons ready in case we were attacked. I held onto Heartstopper and Thalia kept her bow and quiver slung over her back. The hunter's weapons were enchanted much like Justin's bow was, but the Hunter's bow and quiver only appeared whenever they needed them. Plus, they didn't have an infinite supply of arrows in a quiver that always looked like it was empty. Thalia also had a spear and shield that she used, but only if she really needed them.

"So," Thalia spoke up while we searched, "Do you think that we'll be able to kill the hydra? It won't be an easy target."

"I've killed a hydra before," I said, "It wasn't easy, but I hardly think it'll be much of a problem."

"Yeah, but this is THE hydra, Hirius," she said, "The first hydra, the one that even Hercules couldn't kill on his own. It won't be like any other hydra you might've come across."

"I wouldn't worry about it," I said, "I'm sure I'll think of something when the time comes."

Thalia looked like she had more to say, but she decided to drop the topic. To be honest, I wasn't as confident as I sounded. I knew that the Lernaean Hydra would be much stronger than the one that I fought a few years ago. Even though I managed to kill the one that attacked me back then, I had barely survived the encounter and I only beat the thing because I lost control of myself and uprooted half of the forest where I had fought it and nearly killed Justin in the process. If I had to resort to something like that again. Would I be able to snap out of it before I did something that I might regret? Would I even be able to trigger something like that again? No, I had to beat this hydra the old fashioned way.

I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard something moving around us. Thalia turned to say something to me, but I stopped her with a quick sign telling her to keep quiet. The air was silent, but I could still sense something near us, though I didn't have a complete idea of what it was, it did feel familiar. We were surrounded by trees and brush, so it was impossible to see anything. Thalia readied her bow. The two of us waited and listened.

"Maybe it left," Thalia whispered after a while.

I could still feel it though, faintly, but it was still somewhere close. "I'm not so sure," I said.

Thalia lowered her bow and replaced the arrow she had pulled from her quiver. "What do you think we should do," she asked.

I wasn't sure. Whatever I had just sensed was still out there and I had no idea what it actually was. It could've been the hydra, but why wouldn't it attack us? Maybe it was trying to lure us into a trap. Or maybe it was trying to stalk us, to wait for the perfect moment to strike while our defenses were down. Whatever the case, I didn't like not knowing what it was that was out there.

"Maybe we should just move on," I said.

"Really," Thalia asked, "With something following us?"

"It's far off now," I said, "It can probably still smell us, but if it didn't attack right away then I feel like it might be leading us into a trap."

"You think it's that smart?"

"Predators are always a lot sharper than you give them credit for." I started walking again. "We'll just have to keep a closer eye on our surroundings."

Thalia looked ready to object, but she followed me without saying a word. We continued our search, Thalia keeping a close watch for anything that might try to kill us. It was only a few minutes before I felt the monster again. It followed us slowly at first, but it quickened its pace with every passing second. Clearly this thing was a hunter and we were it's pray. I would have to lure it out if I wanted to find out what it was.

We walked on in silence. I didn't tell Thalia that the monster was trailing us again. I didn't want to risk letting it know that I was aware of its presence, and telling Thalia that it was near might cause her to jump at every little noise and scare whatever was stalking us off. Instead, I let her be, and I pretended like I was no wiser to the monster's existence than she was.

I felt whatever was following us moving closer, it could probably see us by now, but I didn't dare risk looking back at it in case I scared it off again. I waited for it to attack us. I would have to act quickly once it did. I heard it moving behind us, a sound I was used to, the sound of a snake as it slithered across the ground. Thalia stopped. She must have heard it too. Whatever it was, it was ready to attack.

"What…"

"Look out," I yelled.

I pushed Thalia to the side. As I did, a massive snake, probably the size of a small house, burst out of the brush around us and lashed out at me with one of its five heads. I dodged to the side quickly and slashed at the first head with Heartstopper, forcing the hydra to retreat. Thalia stood up and readied her bow, shooting me an angry glance as she did so. The hydra eyed us cautiously.

"This isn't the right hydra," I said, "Is it?"

Thalia shook her head.

I spat a silent curse. Of course this wasn't the right hydra, this one was even smaller than the hydra Justin and I faced. And it only had five heads, the one I fought before had to of had at least eight heads, and that was just a guess, I imagined that the Lernaean Hydra must have had at least twenty, and probably more than that. This one must have been a baby by the Lernaean Hydra's standards.

The hydra lashed out at us again, two of its heads going for me, two going for Thalia and the middle one remaining behind to defend its body. Thalia fired and arrow that stuck one of the heads in between its eyes, but it barely did much damage. I quickly summoned a shade to protect us. I used the shade to throw the hydra off of the ground and into a nearby tree.

Thalia and I looked at each other. This was our chance. We turned tail and ran as fast as we could away from the hydra. The monster shook itself out of its daze and chased after us, but we were already far ahead of it. I thought for sure that we were going to get away, but then I felt something. I could sense more monsters nearby. And there were a lot of them.

"There are more," I yelled to Thalia.

"What," she yelled back.

"Duck!"

She looked confused, but she got the message. The two of us fell to the ground and slid over the mud. As we did, the head of another hydra snapped at the air above us where we had been only a moment ago. We came close to being half the demigods we used to be.

We slid to a stop and Thalia got onto her knees. She turned around and fired an arrow at the hydra head behind us, aiming to blind it, but the monster was quick to retract its head into the foliage again. Thalia readied another arrow for when it came back, but I was hardly worried about that one anymore. Another hydra burst out of the trees in front of me. I grabbed Thalia and pulled her with me as I dodged the third hydra's attack.

Thalia and I scrambled to our feet and ran, hoping to put as much distance between us and the hydras as possible. I knew right away that it was no use. The three behind us were already chasing after us, and I could still sense more of them lurking out in the brush. I had no idea how many of them had yet to attack us, but I knew that there were too many of them for Thalia and I to deal with ourselves. We had no choice but to try and get away from them.

I grabbed Thalia again and pulled her left so that we both changed direction. We barely avoided having our heads bitten off by two more hydras that were waiting to ambush us. We avoided them, but we didn't get far before three more appeared from out of nowhere and attacked us. We dodged them and tried to go back the way we came, but before we could so much as move the three hydras from before blocked our path. We were surrounded.

"What now," Thalia yelled.

I held my sword up. Thalia readied her bow and aimed at the closest monster to us. I looked around. There were eight hydras in all, each of them with at least five heads, a few of them had more, but none of them were any bigger than the first one that we encountered. There was no way that we could kill all of them, but maybe we didn't have to. Maybe we just needed to knock a few of them around.

"Follow my lead," I said.

I charged at one of the hydras. Right away, I realized how big of a mistake that was. I thought that I could throw the monsters off guard if I charged them, but I was horribly mistaken. Two hydras lashed out at me, forcing me to dodge them before I could attack the one I was aiming for. Thalia fired an arrow that hit one of my attackers in one of its many eyes, but that barely seemed to do anything other than make it angry.

I dodged the hydra as it went into a mad fury, snapping at me repeatedly. Thalia tried to help, but three of the remaining hydras attacked her before she could. I dodged another head and stabbed Heartstopper into the top of it, pinning one of the hydras heads to the ground, but the others quickly jumped in to help the immobilized head. I dodged the other heads and tried to counter attack, but it was no use.

I dodged the three hydras again and again, trying to think of some way to kill them. Eventually I was pushed back to the point that I was standing back to back with Thalia, her bow aimed at her three attackers. The three hydras on my side closed in on us and the ones on Thalia's side did the same. The two remaining hydras patrolled the rim of the battlefield, daring us to try and make a run for it. I looked around for a way out. We were trapped.

"Okay, Hirius," Thalia said, "If you have some kind of amazing plan, now would be the time to put it into action."

"I wish I could tell you that I did," I said.

"You can't just shadow travel us out of this?"

"I could try," I said, "But it'd be kind of hard to concentrate and I'd likely end up trapping us in a world in between this one and Hades' as opposed to saving us. Plus, we would probably be dead before I could actually get us out of here."

The hydras drew closer. Thalia shot an arrow at one of them, which barely missed it, and the monster backed off. Another hydra stormed forward and attacked her. I turned around and slashed at the hydra leaving a nice cut along the side of one of its heads. The rest of them, except for the two keeping us from running, attacked us at once. Thalia dodged two of them and stuck one with an arrow. I dodged and hacked at the others, my strikes connecting, but none of them doing any real damage.

Thlaia dodged another attack, but she lost her footing in the mud and fell to the ground, losing her grip on her bow as she did. I tried to get over to protect her, but four of the hydras had me surrounded and I was barely keeping myself alive. One of the hydras moved in to attack Thalia. She pulled something out of her pocket that expanded into the spear I had seen her using before. She was able to keep the hydra at a distance, but a second one was closing in on her from behind.

"Enough of this," I screamed at the monsters.

I felt myself become light-headed without warning. I hadn't intended to put so much power into the command, I didn't think that I would be able to control these monsters in the first place, but I nearly passed out from the effort. The hydras stopped in their tracks, all of them looking at me now. All was silent for a moment, and then one of them attacked me.

"Defend," I yelled.

One of the hydras on the outer edge moved up. It rammed into the hydra that attacked me and bit into one of its heads. The others backed away as the two began ripping and biting at each other. I released my control on the monster, feeling like I was going to black out if I tried to hold on to it, but the two continued battling, one of them having already ripped a head off of the other.

This gave me an idea. I couldn't control all of them at once, not if I wanted to kill myself from the effort, but I might be able to use my control to at least get us out of this alive. If I could control one of them at a time for just a few seconds, then I might be able to set them all against each other, providing a distraction and allowing Thalia and I to get out of this without being turned into snake food.

Before I could act, I heard hissing behind me. I turned around. Two of the hydras had ceased watching the others fight and had their attention turned to me. I backed away as one of them lunged at me. I held my sword up and prepared to put my power behind my next command. I felt myself becoming light-headed once again.

"Kill it," I yelled at the second hydra.

The command went through as the second hydra bit down on the tail of the one attacking me. The hydra lifted its brother into the air and tossed it aside like a rag doll. The hydra stood up and bit down on the head of the monster under my control, which began biting frantically at the body of its attacker. As the two continued their brawl, I relinquished my control over the hydra. I looked over at Thalia and mouthed a single word, run.

Thalia pushed herself onto her feet, grabbed her bow off the ground, and ran. I followed her, hoping that the remaining four hydras would be distracted enough by the sudden turn of events that they wouldn't chase after us. Unfortunately, that hope was wrong. Before we were far enough that the monsters were out of sight, I already heard the hydras chasing us. I stopped and turned to them.

"What're you doing," Thalia called to me as she ran ahead.

"Keep going," I called back.

She didn't question me, and I was glad that she didn't. I saw the four remaining hydras slithering after us, knocking aside trees, brush, and anything else that got in there way. I summoned what energy I had left and put it into my last two commands, yelling the first things that came to my mind that I thought would turn the monsters against each other.

"He called you a wimp," I yelled to one hydra as I pointed to the one next to him. The hydra turned and bit the one next to it, causing both of them to fall over and begin biting at each other. I pointed at one of the last two hydras. "He called your mother fat," I yelled. I didn't think it would do anything, but the hydra I had called to lashed out at the one next to it, causing the two to fall over in a similar fashion as the others had done.

With the hydras all fighting with each other, I ran off as fast as I could, aiming to put as much distance between myself and them. I was running for about five minutes when I finally came across Thalia. She had stopped in an open area, nowhere for anything to hide or to ambush her from. Her bow and quiver had disappeared and she looked exhausted, which was no surprise since I probably looked no better than her. I stopped next to her and we allowed ourselves a minute to catch our breath.

"I…" Thalia said between breaths, "I hate snakes."

"You should try getting to know one," I said.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

We were silent for a moment. "Where do you think they all came from," I asked.

Thalia shrugged. "Who knows," she said, "This place is probably a breeding ground for them or something. It certainly looks like a good place for them to live."

I looked back to see if any of them had followed us. When I was sure that we had safely escaped the monsters, I scanned the area around us. We had emerged into an open field, the grass was short there, and there was nowhere for anything to hide from us. Ahead of us, I could see what looked like the edge of a town, or maybe it was just a lone warehouse or something, but it looked like it could be somewhere for us to rest.

"Come on," I said walking forward, "We should probably call it a night."

I hadn't realized after everything that happened, but it was starting to get late already. The sun was beginning to set and it was going to be dark soon. It wouldn't be a good idea for us to go stumbling around the everglades in the dark, especially with who knew how many hydras running around. We needed to find some place safe to sleep before night fell.

Thalia caught up to me. "Aren't your friends supposed to be flying to Miami?"

"I'm sure they'll be okay," I said, "They'll find somewhere to stay. We can meet them tomorrow morning."

"If you say so," she said.

We walked along, but we soon found that our path was impeded by a long, winding river. I looked up and down the stream for a way across, a bridge or something, but there was none. I looked down at the water. It was too muddy to see how deep it was, but we didn't seem to have any other choice.

"Guess we'll have to cross," I said.

"No way," Thalia said, "There has to be another way."

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the opposite bank. I dragged the shadows toward me, but a feeling of nausea came over me and I had to let go of the darkness before I passed out. Controlling the hydras took a lot more out of me than I had anticipated. We had no choice but to walk.

"No good," I said, "I'm too tired to shadow travel."

I stepped forward and slowly lowered myself into the water. At first, I thought that it was going to be too deep to cross, but then my foot sank into what I could only guess was the muddy bed of the river. I stood up, the water coming up to my chest making it difficult to breath. It wouldn't be easy to move through, but we could make it across. I turned to Thalia.

"It's shallow enough," I said, "Come on."

She looked hesitant, but she followed me and lowered herself into the creek slowly. The water rose to her chest, but she was still able to stand and walk. We moved forward, me taking the lead. I chose my steps carefully, hoping that nothing dangerous was living in the water. We were about halfway across the river when an uneasy feeling came over me. That was when I heard Thalia scream.

"What is it," I asked turning to face her.

"Something just touched me," she said.

I looked around in the water, but it was impossible to see anything. I focused, trying to sense if any monsters were nearby, but it was impossible to think clearly when I was so tired. If only the sun would set, then I would have enough darkness to replenish myself. Until then, we were flying blind.

Thalia drew her spear and shield, prepared to defend against an attack. I continued to search the surface of the water, hoping to spot something, but there was no way that I could. Thalia screamed again and stabbed her spear into the water, but missed whatever she was aiming for. I felt something rubbing against the side of my leg. Whatever it was, it was big and its skin was slimy and rough.

I dived down under the water and tried to search for the thing. Even under the surface the water was muddy and I could feel my eyes stinging as I struggled to keep them open. I saw something move, only for a second, but that was all I needed. I summoned Heartstopper again, thankful that the sword had its own store of energy that I could use to call it, and slashed it through the water. The blade connected with something hiding in the water and I saw a flicker of movement again. I pushed myself up and broke the surface of the creek, coughing up muddy water as I did.

"Look out," I yelled through a mouthful of water.

Before Thalia could react, a massive creature broke the surface next to her, sending a gush of muddy water flying in all directions. Thalia brought her shield up as fast as she could. The monster lurched forward and bit down on the edges of Thalia's shield, luckily, she remained unharmed. The monster lifted her out of the water and threw her onto the bank opposite where we had been standing before.

The monster turned its eyes on me. All of its eyes. The hydra in front of me must have been three times the size of the others we had faced before and it must have had ten times as many heads, maybe more, how it managed to hide from us under water I could only guess at. The monster eyed me, each of its fifty-plus heads hissing angrily. I held Heartstopper, but it would be impossible for me to fight while I was chest deep in water. I had to get onto the land.

I backed away slowly, but the monster kept the distance between us to a minimum. Its heads fanned out, like they were trying to surround me. I watched them, wondering how it would attack me. Then it happened. One of the heads lunged at me. I tried to dodge, but there was no way for me to maneuver in the water. The hydra was about to bite my head off when an arrow soared over me and pieced the upper part of the hydra's mouth.

"Run," I heard Thalia yell from the bank behind me, "Now!"

I didn't need to be told twice. I turned and waded through the water as fast as I could. Behind me, the hydra, now recovered from Thalia's attack, charged after me. Its heads attacked me again and again, but Thalia was able to keep them from getting to me. She must have been firing arrows three at a time with the pace she was moving at. Despite that, the hydra was still able to get past her attacks. Luckily, I was barely able to keep myself defended with the use of my powers, but even a slight use of them was taking a huge toll on me.

I reached the bank and climbed up it quickly. Thalia and I tried to run, but we scarcely made it a few feet before I tripped over myself and fell into the mud too tired to even move. The hydra slithered its way out of the water and onto the land. It moved in on us slowly, arrows sticking out of its heads at various angles. Thalia held her bow aimed at the monster, but she was no match for it on her own. We were as good as snake food.

I watched the sun as it began to set. I just needed a little more time, just a few more seconds. The sun sank down, the world was plunged into darkness, even the moon was dark that night. I felt myself growing strong again as I drew in every bit of darkness around me. I don't think I had ever been more thankful to be a child of the Underworld. It was probably one of the only times.

I stood up. The hydra moved in on us and attacked. I summoned a shade and formed a shield all around us. One after the other, the hydra's heads slammed into the shield. Thalia fired her bow, the arrow piercing one of the monster's necks, but it was hardly necessary. I commanded the shade to form in front of me and I used it to launch the hydra into the air and it crashed down into the river once more.

Thalia looked at me in amazement. "How did you…"

"I'll tell you later," I said, "But first, we need to get out of here."

Thalia and I ran ahead together. Behind us, the Lernaean Hydra got out of the water and slithered after us. I held back a curse. I hoped that it would at least be dazed enough that it wouldn't be able to chase us, but I must not have hit it as hard as I had thought. Now we didn't have much choice but to turn and fight, but that didn't come off as the best idea. After all, Thalia was barely in any shape to fight after the first group of hydras and, even though I had recovered energy wise, there was no way that I could heal my wounds from our earlier encounter.

We ran forward, the hydra easily keeping up with us. We had to hide, but where, all around us there was nothing but open field. Up ahead, I was beginning to make out what it was that I had seen earlier. It wasn't a town, or a warehouse even, it was a junkyard, an old abandoned one by the looks of it, but there were still a lot of old cars and trucks scattered across the area.

I directed Thlia toward the junkyard, thinking that we could find a place to hide there. By the looks of it, the place was a couple of acres worth of land all surrounded by a metal fence that was several feet high. A dirt road led out of the place, the mud of the everglades having been left behind a while ago, and there was a single building at the front of the place, which I had mistaken for a warehouse before. Beyond the junkyard, I could see what was indeed the edge of a town, but I didn't want to lead the hydra to a place where people might get hurt.

Lucky for us, the gate was open, so we didn't have to waste any time trying to climb the fence. By that time, it was too dark for Thalia to see, so I had to guide her through a labyrinth of junked up vehicles. The darkness might have been an advantage for us, but I knew that most snakes had a way of seeing in the dark, like infrared vision. Of course, I had no idea if hydras were anything like normal snakes, but I wasn't going to test the idea.

I pulled Thalia down and the two of us ducked behind a car on the far end of the junkyard. I poked my head around the car and watched the hydra. It slithered through the junkyard, its heads fanning out in all directions, some of them snatching up cars and tossing them aside as it searched for us. It was still a good distance away from us, but it would only be a matter of time before it caught up.

I looked all around the junkyard hoping to find something that I could use to fight this thing. The ground below me felt wet. I wouldn't have thought it strange at first, but I could smell something that told me it wasn't water on the ground. Was that gasoline? My mind went into overdrive. I thought back to how Hercules had defeated the hydra in the myth. Hydras only had one weakness.

I reached into my pocket and pulled a lighter out that I had been carrying around for what felt like forever. I never thought that I would find a use for it other than lighting campfires at night, but it was about to become my most useful weapon. "Thalia," I whispered, "Hand me an arrow."

"What," she whispered back.

"Hand me an arrow."

She pulled one from her quiver and handed it to me. I took the arrow and soaked the tip of it in the gasoline as best I could. I looked at it for a moment, wondering if this was a good idea. I lit the tip of the arrow with the lighter. The flames danced for about a minute before dying out. I checked on the hydra again. It hadn't taken notice of us yet.

"Do you think you can hit it from here," I asked Thalia.

She poked her head over the car. "I can see it, but just barely," she said, "Yeah, I could probably hit it from here, but what are you planning?"

I handed her the lighter. "The ground here is covered in gasoline, it must've leaked from the car," I said, "Soak the tip of the arrow, when I cut off one of its heads, light the arrow with this and shoot."

Thalia looked at me for a moment. "This is crazy you know," she said.

"Just another day in my life." I jumped over the car and ran toward the hydra. "Hey," I yelled as I charged it, "Over here, come get me!"

The hydra turned all of its heads toward me and charged. I dodged its first attack and tried to hack one of its heads off, but I missed it by just a few inches. The hydra attacked me again. I dodged around it, but before I could counter, another head attacked me and I was forced to move.

The hydra attacked me again and again and I was barely keeping up with it. I was just lucky that it was nighttime, otherwise it would've tired me out a long time ago. I dodged around another bite and brought Heartstopper down on the back of one of its necks. The head hissed angrily as my blade cut through the hydras skin and the head was severed from the rest of its body, falling lifelessly to the ground.

The hydra backed away from me, the other heads looking at the spot where I had cut one of them off. I watched as the stub began to split in two, two more heads growing in place of the one I had cut off. However, before the new ones grew in, an arrow with a burning tip hit the stub of the hydras neck. The other heads hissed in frustration, but there was nothing they could do. Alright, one head down, fifty more to go.

The hydra, now with one less head, attacked me again. I fought, shielding and dodging, attacking when I could. Slowly, one by one, I severed the hydras heads and their re-growth was stopped by another one of Thalia's flaming arrows. My plan was working, slowly but surely, we were killing the Lernaean Hydra.

The monster was starting to get angry, more so than it already was. With only twenty heads left, the hydra's attacks were becoming more and more aggressive. I was doing everything I could to keep myself alive. The monster bit down at me. I backed away just in time to avoid it and the monster bit up a mouthful of dirt. I parried the monster several more times, trying to get to it again, but it was much more careful now that we had found its weakness.

I dodged another head and found my back against an old car. The hydra loomed in front of me. One of its mouths opened and shot at me. I dove into the car behind me through the broken window, shards of glass cutting into my back and sides as I did. The hydra bit into the side of the car and lifted it off of the ground. I felt like I was weightless as the car was thrown up into the air only to slam onto the ground again in front of the hydra.

I was shaken up a bit by the ride, but I hadn't taken any serious injuries. Outside, the hydra tried to fit several of its heads through the windows, but they were much too small. I tried to hack at the monster from the inside, but there wasn't enough room for me to do anything to it. The monster picked the car up and slammed it off of the ground several more times. I was only able to keep myself alive by using the darkness as a shield.

The car smashed into the ground for what felt like the hundredth time. Then I heard something slam into the roof. I looked up in time to see the roof torn right off of the car and thrown aside by one of the hydras heads. Another head tried to bite down on me while I was still in the back seat of the car. I was barely able to roll away in time to avoid being eaten for the millionth time today and I jumped onto the back of the monster's neck. Before it could react, I severed the head from its body and another flaming arrow was shot into the stub of a neck.

The hydra flailed around in frustration at the loss of another one of its heads. I moved in to attack again, hoping to catch it off guard while it threw its little temper tantrum, but an uneasy feeling hit me again. I could sense more monsters moving toward the junkyard, more hydras. I looked at the flailing one in front of me. There was no way we would be able to finish it off in time. We would have to retreat for now.

Before I could make a move, I heard the sound of something, or multiple somethings, crashing through the fence surrounding the junkyard. That was when I made the mistake of taking my eyes off of the Lernaean Hydra. The moment I turned away from it, the monster unleashed a fury of attacks. It was lucky that I saw it move out of the corner of my eye and managed to get away from it in time.

I tried to get another one of its heads, but another hydra, a much smaller, attacked me from out of nowhere. I dodged it and almost jumped right into the mouth of a third one, but I was able to kick its head away from me. I was about to make a run for it, but a fourth hydra stood in my path.

I looked around at the four hydras. The three smaller ones were clearly what was left of the group that attacked us earlier. They each had more heads now than I remembered, but I guessed that was from the fact that they were fighting with their brothers. The four hydras hissed at me, watching me closely, waiting, daring me to make a move and give them an opening.

I was starting to agree with Thalia now.

"I hate snakes," I whispered to myself.

I looked around frantically for Thalia. She was a distance away, moved from where we had been hiding before, her bow aimed at the Lernaean Hydra, the biggest one in the group. She was looking at me, looking for an answer to our problem. I tried to tell her to run, but there was no way that she would be able to see me signaling to her.

I looked at the hydras one after the other, prepared to defend myself if one of them decided to attack. Come on think, I told myself, there has to be a way out of this. There was always a way out, but there didn't seem to be one this time. But what was that smell? I could still smell gasoline and it was strong, it must have been everywhere. Maybe that was what I needed. I looked at Thalia. I needed to get to her.

One of the smaller hydras attacked. I summoned a shade and used it to throw the hydra across the junkyard. I ran forward, the other hydras attacked me. I turned and used the darkness to toss another one of the smaller hydras away, but the second one got to me, giving me just a moment to dodge it. I turned and slashed the head of the monster, causing it to rear back in pain. I called another shade and launched the third hydra across the junkyard.

I tried to get to Thalia again, who was now doing her best to keep the hydras away from me, but my old friend the Lernaean Hydra got in my way. I dodged its heads one at a time as they came at me, but I was wasting time. I needed to get passed it. Another head tried to bite me. I stabbed Heartstopper into the roof of the hydras mouth. I felt a searing pain in my arm as one of the hydras teeth pierced through my sword arm, forcing me to release my grip on the blade.

The hydra backed away from me, hissing in complaint of the pain. Heartstopper was still stuck in its mouth, but I didn't have time for that. I ran passed the monster, which was trying in vain to remove my blade from its mouth. I clutched my arm as I ran, trying to stop it from bleeding. Thalia saw me coming and ran toward me. I held my good hand out.

"The lighter," I yelled, "Throw it!" She did so without hesitation. "Now run!"

She turned and ran with me toward the front gates of the junkyard. I lit the lighter and tossed it behind me. The moment it touched the ground, the gasoline ignited, engulfing everything in flames. Thalia and I were barely able to keep ourselves from catching on fire along with everything else as we reached the front gates.

Once we were outside of the fence, I looked back. Huge flames were dancing over the land where we had been a moment ago. The building was on fire as well. I couldn't see the hydras, but I couldn't imagine that they were fairing well. Then I heard a loud boom. Something was about to explode.

"Hit the deck," I yelled.

Thalia and I fell to the ground, our hands over our heads, and I quickly made a shield around us. Just then, a massive explosion went off somewhere behind us, shaking the land around it. I looked back in time to see chunks of flaming metal fly into the air and come raining down in the field surrounding the junkyard. It was a good thing I had put a shield up, otherwise we would've been crushed.

When I was sure it was safe, I put the shield down and rolled over onto my back, Thalia did the same. I looked up at the night sky, drinking in the darkness, feeling better with every passing second. My arm was still bleeding, it wasn't bad, but it still stung. I don't know how long we were laying there, but as long as I didn't have a reason to get up, I wasn't going to.

"Well, now it's definite," Thalia said after a long time, "I really hate snakes."

"They aren't all that bad," I said, "I'll have to introduce you to Greg sometime." I was sure that Thalia had no idea what I was talking about, but she didn't say anything.

"We should take care of that wound," she said. I took my shirt off and tore it into strips. Thalia and I fashioned a crude dressing for my wound. It wasn't much, but the bleeding stopped after some time. My arm still burned like crazy and I wondered if hydras were venomous. After a minute though, I decided to forget about it and I fell onto my back again.

We lay on the ground in silence for a long time. I watched the flames in the distance, waiting to see if the Lernaean Hydra would come charging out of the inferno after us. After a while, I saw two people appear from out of nowhere. They apparently didn't see us lying there, but they were clearly looking for someone.

I didn't think that there was anything strange about two people being out in a field in the middle of the night, though I probably should have, but then they called my name. "Hirius," I heard one of them call.

I sat up and watched them. "Over here," I called back.

The two turned toward us. "I heard him," one of them said, "This way."

They started running toward us and I got up and did the same, leaving Thalia to continue lying on the ground behind me. Before I even got a good look at the two of them, Sarah's arms were around me, holding me so tight that I thought she would never let go, and I'm sure that she didn't want to.

"Dude," Justin said as he caught up, "Where in the world have you been?" He looked passed me. "And who's the chick?"

Sarah let go of me and looked at Thalia, who had gotten up and followed after me. The look on Sarah's face told me that she was not happy. Alright, I could handle this. I had taken on and defeated the lord of time, I even defeated one of the most powerful gods that ever existed. Surely this was child's play compared to that.

"Okay," I said, "Just give me a second to explain." I paused for a minute to gather my thoughts. "Ummm," I said. I was at a loss for words.

"I'm Thalia," Thalia stepped in and introduced herself, holding her hand out to Sarah in a friendly gesture.

Sarah stared at Thalia, who had the biggest smile on her face. Sarah didn't look quite as happy. I could practically see lightning shooting from Sarah's eyes, which was strange because Thalia was the one that should've been shooting lightning, you know, being the daughter of Zeus and all.

"I'm Sarah," Sarah said slowly as she shook Thalia's hand. She had a smile on her face, but I clearly saw her shoot an angry glance at me.

"Nice to meet you," Thalia said. The four of us went silent for a moment. "Well, we should find somewhere safe to talk. I'm sure you guys want to hear all about what Hirius has been up to."

"Yeah," Sarah said, "I can't wait." She was still smiling, but I wasn't buying it. She was clearly mad at me.

The girls started walking toward the town beyond the still burning junkyard. Justin and I stayed behind for a moment.

"I think you might be in trouble bro," Justin said as we followed the girls.

I sighed. "It's gonna be a long night."


End file.
